By Malachi Motano
Co-operative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) has organised training on taxation, cybercrime risks and preventions for leaders and general Co-operatives stakeholder to help reduce the rising criminal activities brought about by the fast changing technology.
“It has been a year since Kenya registered the first case of Covid-19. The news changed how we do business as a country across all sectors. The co-operative sector has continuously embraced the use of technology as a new normal of doing business especially the use of E-banking and E-mail communications as well as online meetings as one way of reducing the risk of being in contact among the staff and Sacco members. While technology has brought ease of doing business, it also poses serious risks which if not carefully analysed and proper measures taken to mitigate them can easily wipe away the gains derived from it,” says CAK Executive director Daniel Marube.
He cites, for instance a computer virus called ‘WannaCry’ which spread through e-mail and crippled all services at public hospitals in the UK, freezing some computers used by the Russian Interior ministry, impairing operations in German train stations as one example
“Therefore training on Cyber Security Risks such as e-mail phishing attacks, abuse of privileged access and critical data manipulation etc. will be useful for us to ensure that gains brought about by Technology don’t go to waste,” he says.
He says the Co-operative sector is also facing tax compliance issues with the ever changing tax legislations as the government seeks to raise revenues, acknowledging that CAK is cognizant of the fact that the co-operatives are becoming more ambitious in terms of expansion and growth for economic benefits of its members.
On the other hand the Tax regime is increasingly becoming a complex web of tax rules, regulations and Co-operative societies need to continuously find new ways of aligning their tax strategies with their overall business needs while meeting the compliance obligations.
“It is therefore, in this regard, that CAK has assembled a team of experts to guide us through these complete subjects and make it more practical to our application. We are offering an interactive learning experience in both taxation and cybercrime risks that is most recommended to the Board Members, Audit Committee/Supervisory Committee, Chief Executive Officers, Executive Committee, Internal Auditors, Senior Managers, Accountants AND IT and Risk Staff
CAK also invites any other employees requiring deeper knowledge on the subject matters described above to the training on which will be held at Maanzoni Lodge, Machakos on 14th to 17th of September 2021
Conducted by PWC Kenya; Members of ICPAK professional body will be awarded `CPD Units upon successfully completion of the training, will cover the following topics like CYBERCRIME RISKS, Emerging Cyber-crime risks , Detection of Cyber-crime risks , Mitigation of Cyber-crime risks , Social Engineering , Phishing , Ransom Ware, IT Risks and Controls , Mobile banking fraud schemes, Use of data analytics to detect fraud , Using digital forensics to respond to fraud AND Elements and countermeasures of cyber fraud taxation.
The training will also cover Accounting for taxes in Sacco books, Introduction to taxation of Saccos , Overview of the Kenyan Tax Regime , Tax changes in Kenya for Saccos, Tax Planning , Legal framework on taxation of Saccos , Sacco Litigation and Implications of Finance Act 2021 changes.
