The New AOB Chairman

Great news, Dato Gumuri Hussain has been appointed Executive Chairman of the AOB. A distinguished professional that has always held himself with the poise and the demeanour that is becoming of a true professional. Amongst his stellar record is the fact that he was a very senior partner at Cooper & Lybrand and then PwC, Chairman of SME Bank, MD of PMB and a member of the Board of Commissioners of the SC. 

He has a cv that is better than the job requirement and that of the the person that he will be reporting too, notwithstanding this it is timely that a person of such calibre has been appointed to clean up the mess at the AOB thus far. 

He has many challenges in front of him amongst which will be to,

1. Establish a reputation for the AOB, to demonstrate very publicly that the AOB is not biased and favours the Big4.  

2. Introduce professionalism into the AOB.

3. Don't fall into the Big 4 trap/mantra of they know all, please listen to us.

4. Navigate the shifting sands of the SC with all its politicians.

Notwithstanding these I am sure he will do what  is right, rein in the auditing profession and  return integrity to the AOB.

Under the cloud of Bresih5, a Coup!

The general internal feelings around March of this year was that the person appointed to the post of Deputy Chief Executive was not of sufficient experience to be elevated to the position. Rumours  were abound that there was a mini uprising (all very peaceful) and that there were some that were unwilling to serve under the new DCE, hence the sudden creation of positions like Project Advisor etc. It would seem that this uprising did not go away and under the clouds of Bresih5 a coup of sorts has taken place.

In almost all organisations you have a chairman, a board of directors, comprising executive and non executive directors and then you have a person appointed as the chief executive or managing director.  In this organisation the chief walla is the Executive Chairman. The next person of responsibility and accountability under the Act is the DCE.

However a few years ago, so the story goes, that the then EC realising the powers of the DCE decided to do away with the DCE and had two MDs. The current EC, in fairness to him, decided to revert back to tradition and have a DCE. All things in Camelot was fine until the last DCE's contract was not renewed and the new appointee was announced, causing the mini uprising as there were those in senior management that felt that they had more right to the position due to their experience, long tenure etc. To placate the situation, 6 months later, the EC came up with this new structure, creating within the organisation, managing directors, executive directors, and directors, and in all this there is still the position and the person in the post of DCE.

To avoid bias, I called friends ask what their understanding was of a managing director and a deputy chief executive, and the majority was of the opinion that the MD was in a position of higher authority than the DCE........hmmmm. Before the  man goes off on a tizzy and says that this is all malicious and is the view of people  don't understand, please note that 90% is perception and 10% is reality.

To add substance to this I am also told that all the highways (read as bold lines) are to the EC and that trunk roads (read as dotted lines) are to the DCE, says a lot.

I am additionally confused by this role of Chief Regulatory Officer, General Counsel etc. If the EC actually understood the origins of the position of General Counsel he would realise its a non operational position, an that it is meant to be independent function.

Confusion, confusion, confusion, this is what happens when attempts are made to pander to egos, confusion and dysfunction sets in..........best of luck to the organisation.