##ets of the core principles for effective banking supervision, developed by the basel committee on banking supervision in 2006 and revised in 2012, is that banks should have in place internal control frameworks to establish and maintain a properly controlled operating environment for the conduct of their business taking into account their risk profile, which should include, inter alia, appropriate independent internal audit and compliance functions to test adherence to these controls as well as applicable laws and regulations. in addition, the bank ’ s board and management have the responsibility for ensuring that the financial statements issued annually to the public bear an independent external auditor ’ s opinion as a result of an audit 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches conducted in accordance with internationally accepted auditing practices and standards. therefore, both external and internal auditors have a key role to play in strengthening corporate governance as they are the third line of defence within the combined assurance frameworks after the risk management control and compliance functions. the internal audit function is one of the fundamental “ checks and balances ” for sound corporate governance, designed to provide an independent assurance to the board of directors and senior management on the quality and effectiveness of a bank ’ s internal control, risk management and governance systems and processes, to help the board and senior management protect their organisation and its reputation. while external auditors, on the other hand, are responsible for providing reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatements and prepared according to international financial reporting standards. the global financial crisis, however, not only revealed weaknesses in risk management, control and governance processes in banks, but also highlighted the need to improve the quality of external audits of banks. while until now, the “ three lines of defence model ” has been used traditionally to model the interaction between corporate governance and internal control systems, international standard setters and policy - makers are calling for a stronger interaction between banks and supervisors, particularly on the governance of risk. according to the four - lines - of - defence model, the external auditor would be required to provide an autonomous assessment of the first three lines. in march 2014, the basel committee on banking supervision issued new guidelines on external audit of banks in aiming at reinforcing the key role the audit committee plays in promoting quality bank audits through effective communication with the external auditor and robust oversight of the external audit process. though the external auditor does not have direct corporate governance responsibility, he must provide a check on the information aspects of the governance system, notably, whether the financial information given to investors

list of countries that have issued platinum coinage. three beautifully - crafted platinum coins constitute the “ father of the nation ” platinum series. the first coin was launched on 30 october 2009 by dr the honourable navinchandra ramgoolam, our prime minister. the second coin in the series will be launched later this year. training the financial turmoil undeniably posed new challenges for central banks and imposed new demands and new burdens on them. the leadership of central banks are under pressure to ensure that their institution is equipped to deal with the challenges which this crisis brought – and ready to face the next one. – we put a lot of emphasis on training our key staff, expose them to new thinking and raise their professional competence and skills to enable them to deal with a rapidly - changing external environment. – in the course of the year, our staff members benefited from 124 training opportunities in different areas of central banking from reserve management to talent building, an increase of 33 per cent on the previous year. – the credibility of our central bank rests on the quality of its staff, its work culture and its leadership abilities. i wish here to thank the governor of the south african reserve bank ( sarb ) who has graciously agreed to assist us in our endeavour to enhance the skills - set of our middle management with a dedicated programme on effective leadership and executive management. we were also delighted to have had the honourable tito mboweni, former governor of sarb, as a special guest to our annual dinner in honour of economic operators in december 2009. salary review and staff matters in august 2009, a report on the review of salary and terms and conditions of service was implemented, following a majority decision ( mostly external directors ) of the board of directors of the bank, with the governor, the first deputy governor, and me kader bhayat, external director, dissenting. – this report was commissioned by the board after an earlier report by the hay group, a well - known pay and remuneration consultancy selected by the bank after an open competitive tender, was rejected in toto by the board. it followed the first report from the consultant proposed by the board, which the board also found unacceptable. the second report of the consultant was prepared along lines acceptable to the board. – this last report was based on the organisation structure prevailing before the 2007 restructuring exercise. predictably, its implementation led to much litigation in court as well as to a string of cases before the labour tribunal, charging the