As part of its continued efforts to nourish the accountancy profession in the country, the Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) launched its 2013 ÔÇô 2016 strategic plan in Francistown last week.
The objectives of the strategic plan, among others, are to develop a clear understanding of the organization’s current reality, to paint a clear picture of where the organization is heading, to identify what may hinder the organization from achieving its goals and how these barriers will be removed and to address the organization’s long term sustainability.
Giving the overview of the strategic plan during the launch, the President of BICA, Tshegofatso Modise, said that in 2012 the BICA council commissioned a strategy refresh session and this was led by BICA management through a three day interactive session which involved consultations with BICA Council members, past presidents and some key stake holders.
“The session was commenced after a stakeholder consultation session, which was done using a balance scorecard approach. It was a four year strategy for the period of 2013 -2016,” she said.
Modise said that the new strategy document was put through a stake holder session in November 2012 and after incorporating the valuable stakeholder comments, it was approved by the council in November 2012.
Among other issues, Modise said that under the new BICA strategy they have four key focus areas which are: the positioning of the BICA qualifications and brand, increasing the number of BICA members and professional accountants in the country, ensuring that BICA attains sustainability and improving the services that BICA offers.
Touching on some of the challenges faced by the organisation, Modise said that BICA does not have sufficient human resources to implement the strategy.
She also said that the current BICA pass rates are low among students who are studying for the BICA qualification. She said that this has been primarily attributed to the compulsory requirement to study and work simultaneously, the caliber of the current student pool as well as other challenges in the delivery of the qualification.
“This year we had poor results in June examinations but we have set high targets for the coming year of 2014. We are hopeful that the results will improve as time goes on,” she said.
Modise also said that some of the challenges faced by BICA is the fact that the organisation is currently dependent on its strategic partners, other service providers and the Botswana government. She also bemoaned inadequate participation of citizens in the institute.
“BICA is also negatively affected by the government’s turn around times such as decision making and disbursement of funds,” she added.
She was however adamant that the organization will tackle its challenges as time goes on.
The main objective of BICA is to protect public interest through, promoting the accountancy profession, facilitating quality professional accountancy services through the monitoring and regulation of professional accountants and developing professional accountants in the country.
