The Chief Executive Officer of the Lesotho Institute of Accountants (LIA) and the Director General of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offenses (DCEO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Maseru on Thursday.

Speaking at the occasion, the Director General of DCEO, Mr. Borotho Matsoso said the purpose of the MOU is to set out a framework of cooperation between LIA and DCEO.

And to facilitate coordination of the two bodies on areas of common interest as it is the duty of his office to work with private and public sectors in the fight against corruption.

He said as part of the MOU, DCEO is mandated to outsource specialised assignments that include selection of audit firms and individual accountants to members of LIA when appropriate.

Again, whenever possible, DCEO is mandated to assist LIA in its endeavors to constantly provide continuing professional training to its members to acquire new skills to enable them to perform to the World Standards on assignments given to them by DCEO.

LIA-Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Puleng Lebitsa said it will be the responsibility of her organization to ensure that it takes proper disciplinary action against its members reported by DCEO since their members have to abide by the ethics.

She added that they will coordinate amongst its members provision of feedback to DCEO on any consultation documents provided for comments and inputs.

The nature of cooperation between the two parties will include sharing of information on new developments in their fields of accounting and economic developments.

Source: LENA 18/10/2007