STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER
DR B.SIBUSISO DLAMINI
AT THE KPMG COCKTAIL PARTY
ROYAL SWAZI SPA BANQUETING HALL
WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 2014
Chief Executive and Senior Partner KPMG Southern Africa, Mr
Moses Kgosana
Head of Financial Services KPMG, Mr Trevor Hoole
Chief Operating Officer KPMG Africa, Mr Anthony Thunstrom
Managing Partner KPM Swaziland Mr Robert Young
Managing Partner- to-be Mr Robert Sithebe
Forensic Auditor Ms Yvonne Gittins
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am very pleased to have the opportunity, this evening, to welcome the very senior KPMG visitors to Swaziland and to this function, and to join you all at this celebration of the expiring tenure of office of Mr Robert Young as Managing Partner of KPMG Swaziland, and the appointment of his successor who is our very own Mr Robert Sithebe.
And when I say “our very own” that is not in any way to detract from the good work done by Mr Young but it is always most encouraging when one of our own citizens reaches the top job in an organisation, and especially in a partnership of the size and international reputation of KPMG.
I have always admired our audit firms for the very high professional standards they demand from their employees and, of course, this manifests itself in the quality of the audits that they perform. Elevation criteria for the upwardly mobile into partnership level are no doubt equally rigorous and for that reason I am very pleased to congratulate Mr Vuzi Nkabindze for his admission as a partner. And he has unequivocally put to rest one utterly false rumour that was buzzing around which was that unless your fellow partners could also call you “Bob” your chances of getting a partnership were slim.
But, seriously, this is an opportune moment to congratulate KPMG for its 50 years of presence in Swaziland. A strong auditing profession is of critical importance to any country and immensely reassuring to its citizens and investors. To know that the quality of accounting and risk management, and the honesty and accuracy of financial statements are assessed under the highly skilled and watchful eye of an audit firm of the calibre of KPMG, inspires a great deal of confidence.
And confidence is precisely what we want existing and future investors to feel when they are part of, or considering entry into our business environment. This Administration has set itself challenging targets in the area of public service delivery, and the resources that are needed for that will have to come from faster economic growth. A rapid increase in domestic and foreign direct investment are crucially important contributors to that. To have top quality audit firms like KPMG operating professionally in the country does enhance quite considerably the appeal of our business environment. One reputable global competitiveness index has consistently given a high rating to our domestic accounting standards. Firms like KPMG, supported by our resourceful and energetic Swaziland Institute of Accountants, can take a good part of the credit for that.
There are, of course, many other components in a truly business-friendly economy and our newly established Investor Roadmap Unit is a significant step towards ratcheting up the appeal of Swaziland to the investor. To achieve our targets all hands will be required on deck, which is another way of saying that all public and private sector stakeholders will be expected to give the IRM Unit the fullest cooperation. Government Ministries will be expected to offer an exceptionally high degree of productive collaboration since a great deal of responsibility for improving the business environment rests on the shoulders of the public sector.
Firms like KPMG are members of the stakeholder group that is consulted annually by the World Bank when updating its Ease of Doing business Index. We, in Government, will greatly appreciate the professions, as well as the remainder of the private sector, collaborating informatively with the IRM Unit, when requested, in order to identify the measures that will move Swaziland rapidly up the Index and attract world-wide attention among investors.
This is KPMG’s evening and a very special event for Messrs Young, Sithebe and Nkabindze. We are confident that we can rely on your maintaining the highest standards of audit work and other professional services. The firm has of course played a very significant role in our anti-corruption drive through carrying out a number of forensic audits, invariably at very short notice.
We are proud to have KPMG in our professional sector. It comes as no surprise that the standards achieved by the firm are evident in other business environments. The firm was, quite recently, ranked number four in one United Kingdom business magazine in the list of the 50 best places to launch a career and around the same time was considered by a top British journal to be the best big company to work for. Those are worthy accolades since the staff will always be the most important resource of any company.
In Swaziland the firm has been true to its motto of being “committed to our communities,” having sponsored football, raised money for the disadvantaged, participated in charity events and rewarded staff who have demonstrated active community involvement.
Finally, may I thank Robert Young for his work in Swaziland and wish him a happy retirement, and give my best wishes to Robert Sithebe the new Managing Partner of KPMG Swaziland and Vuzi Nkabindze as he joins the partnership, as well as to the rest of the firm as they “look to the future.”
Thank you.