The Government has issued a statutory instrument (Accountants [Client Fees] Regulations, 2018 [Statutory Instrument Number 34 of 2018]) to regulate the fees charged by accountants in order to avail accounting services to more citizens and micro, small, medium, and large organisations.
Commenting on the Statutory Instrument that she signed, Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe expressed hope that the measure will protect clients, protect accountants and above all, ensure the integrity of the accountancy profession.
Mrs. Mwanakatwe stated that “this is a pragmatic step in reducing the cost of accountancy transactions and will result in the growth of accountancy firms and further lead to job creation for many young people entering the accountancy profession.”
The key objectives of the Statutory Instrument are as follows:
1) To prescribe in fee unit, form fees chargeable by practicing accountants, taking into consideration the individual accountants involved in an accountancy assignment;
2) To provide the basis for agreements between the accountant and the client on the fee scale; and,
3) To provide a standardized, fair, and transparent mode of charging accountants fees.
Before Statutory Instrument Number 34 of 2018 was brought into effect, fees chargeable by accountants in practice and auditing and non-auditing firms were not based on any framework, legal or regulatory, and were in some cases out of the reach of many individuals and businesses.
Whichever way, the fees chargeable were not an indicator of the cost or the quality of services that were offered. This trend compromised the integrity of the accountancy and auditing professionals and organisations.
“I am happy that this statutory instrument sets a platform for the protection of public interest as it will contribute to improved financial governance in the country,” stated Mrs. Mwanakatwe.
Copies of the (Accountants [Client Fees] Regulations, 2018 [Statutory Instrument Number 34 of 2018]) can be procured from the Government Printer.
Issued by:
Chileshe Kandeta
FOR MINISTRY OF FINANCE
NOTE: Copies of the (Accountants [Client Fees] Regulations, 2018 [Statutory Instrument Number 34 of 2018]) can be procured from the Government Printer.
Good, now we need to look at legal fees.
Legal fees are already regulated.
In fact, legal fees have always been regulated.
It’s about stealing every single day. What a scam..
Legal fees have been way too high.
No small, medium businessman can afford fees charged by lawyers as per regulated fee structure.
There is no need for such SIs as they result in steep rise and become anti-competitive, exploitative and an opportunity for lawyers to encourage its clients to resort to legal actions where they know the case has zero success possibility
Regulate you guys’ salaries
do so in everything else..
Next is lawyers fees! Bamambala balidula!
This marks the end of small firms whose only advantage was the ability to charge low fees compared to the big firms that carried a lot of overheads. And since the accountants have never cleared the misconception that the big 4 are better than independent firms, all the business will now go to the big 4 and nothing for Bwalya Kabwe & Associates.
I agree with Jerry Mashamba. Hourly rates are as follows:-
Senior/Managing Partner – K13,334
Partner – K11,112
Senior Manager – K10,418
Manager – K8,334
Supervisor – K7,640
Audit Senior – K6,250
Semi Senior – K5,556
Assistant Auditor – K4,862
Those are not absolute Kwachas but units. A unit is K0.30 (30 ngwee)
Housing rentals should also be regulated.
Regulated rentals would scare away developers looking to build for purposes of leasing. This in turn would not help our national goal of reducing the housing deficit .
We are slowly shifting from the free market economy with these regulations, it defeats the concept of competition. It’s retrogressive especially for professionals. Government loses colossal amounts of money through the corrupt procurement process, that’s where they need to target to stem pillage. Agriflro went under despite KPMG having cleared it’s financial statements as viable. This SI will injure the same people its meant to protect. What’s with the PF implementing radical changes without exhaustive consultations? Is that the modus operandi?
100 percent agree. Surely Aunty Maggie knows this having been a banker on the other side of regulation her whole career. This is all in the name of populism. Unfortunately majority of the people think regulation is always a good thing, even from the comments here you can tell.
Noted Mwine Mushi. Thank you. However, i still think the smaller firms will suffer.
At this rate even fee paying toilets will be regulated!!