The-Accountant-Jul-Aug-2017

PEN OFF
their businesses in order to fulfill their
organizational and regulatory objectives.
Regulators are paying greater attention
to enhanced organizational reporting,
and are increasingly of the view that
assessments of an organization—for
example, its performance or compliance
with regulatory requirements—depend
on a wider range of information than
is available from financial reports. It
is generally agreed that high-quality
organizational reporting is important for
all types of organizations. In a number
of countries, the importance of public
sector entities reporting more broadbased
information is already evident by
the range of reporting and associated
assurance that is currently in place.
I believe that we are quickly heading
to a position of over-regulation in Kenya.
In 2016, when I informed the managing
director of a stock broking firm that all
of his staff who actually deal with stock
broking work would have to register with
the Institute of Certified Investment and
Financial Analysts, he joked that soon,
when one wants to recruit a gardener,
one will have to make sure that s/he is
a member of the Institute of Certified
Gardeners and Car-washers of Kenya.
Regulators all over the world think that
they will solve the world’s problems by
passing “good” legislation. But what
happens when the increase in legislation
only makes it more difficult for businesses
to function? Before we approved the
IFAC believes it is in
the public interest
for organizations to
report more broadbased
information
that is important
to, and useful for,
stakeholders, all
those involved with
the organization,
from customers,
to suppliers,
employees,
investors, lenders,
the tax department
and the government.
present constitution of Kenya, I asked
one of the Committee of Experts how we
would finance a 50% increase in the size
of Parliament, a new Senate of 67 persons
(if the US had a Senate of comparable
size, it would have 497 members as
opposed to its present 10o), a governor
in each of the 47 new counties and a
county assembly of 60 persons in each
of the 47 counties: the “Expert’s” reply
was “the counties will generate their own
economic resources”. In early 2017, small
businesses in Bungoma were complaining
about the large increase in licence fees in
2017; Bungoma is the county where 10
wheelbarrows were purchased for KShs.
1 million in late 2015. Coffee farmers
in Bungoma sell their coffee in Uganda
because they get a better price there:
but they buy sugar and maize meal from
Uganda, because these commodities are
cheaper in Uganda. But let us return to
Integrated Reporting.
IFAC believes it is in the public
interest for organizations to report
more broad-based information that is
important to, and useful for, stakeholders,
all those involved with the organization,
from customers, to suppliers, employees,
investors, lenders, the tax department
and the government. IFAC argues that
the enhanced organizational reporting
domain is increasingly seen as fragmented
with different reporting requirements
for different purposes and capitals
There is a debate about how the broader
information needs of stakeholders should
be met through a single channel—
the annual or integrated report—or
whether different channels should be
used for different purposes. A number
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