Thabo Modiselle (Founder and CEO )
Thabo is the founder of Siso Foundation and specialises in the local and internationally funded institutions sector. He has led teams of the firm’s professionals providing a broad range of services to donor funded projects in Africa. From his base originally in South Africa, he has managed short and long-term assignments in numerous countries including Uganda, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Liberia, Mali, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Angola and Namibia.
Thabo Modiselle is a qualified chartered accountant. He served his articles with a small accounting firm and thereafter joined a medium sized firm to increase his audit and accounting knowledge. He subsequently joined a reputable international accounting firm. He had the ambition to become a partner in the firm one day. Working in the non-governmental sector was not high on his list of priorities.
Thabo’s path into the sector was set in 1996 when he joined the Internationally Funded Institution (IFI) division of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This division specialized in donor funded projects. In 1999 his employer PwC assigned him to assist Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation-Secure The Future (STF) in setting up a financial reporting system for its partners in Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa. His STF responsibilities included pre-award assessment of STF partners that were selected for funding, capacity building for the approved partners, reviewing of approximately 50 partner reports monthly and auditing of selected partners at the end of the fiscal year and at completion (close out) of the support period.
Four years into his work with STF Thabo seized the opportunity and launched Donor Support Sector Specialists (DSSS) with a healthy database of clients that included PwC, STF, Swedish Embassy, Oxfam Angola, and CARE South Africa amongst others. His goal was to impart sound financial management skills to the broader NGO audience to ensure their sustainability.
“There are bound to be inefficiencies in financial management when an organisation has never had a board, was never trained on governance and leadership, and lacks guidance on how to operate within constitutional guidelines. Auditing firms that did not understand the unique challenges facing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were qualifying their audit reports, which compromised further support for their programmes. Initiatives such as those offered by Secure The Future ensured that elements that would strengthen the sector were brought in and NGOs were helped to professionalize their services.”
“STF partners gained valuable expertise from DSSS, 50 percent of them achieving the desired results. The work was an ideal precursor to the launch of the Non-Governmental Training Institute (NGOTI) in which I also played an instrumental role. NGOTI was launched in the five Southern African countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia offering seven modules of courses that included financial management and governance”.
Thabo also plays a part in the other STF brainchild, the Technical Assistance Programme (TAP). The programme provides partners the opportunity to receive onsite technical assistance on skills they have identified as areas that need strengthening. STF faculty members, drawn from a large pool of partner experts in various fields, visit the partner projects over a period of time to replicate best practices of partner projects.
Assignments he has undertaken include:
Project evaluation, monitoring and audit including advice on matters arising;
Value for money reviews and investigations, including training;
Pre and post-award surveys, reviews of financial administration systems, advice to projects on improvements required and assistance with implementation of recommendations;
examinations to confirm grantee compliance with terms and conditions of grants; and
Capacity building and sustainability reviews.
Thabo has worked with several donors/funders such as the World Bank, EC funded projects, the Governments of Denmark, Finland, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Embassy of the Netherlands, USAID, AusAid, Resource Triangle Institute, Wits Health Consortium, Tertiary Education Linkage Project (TELP), Ireland embassy, Evangelische Zentralstelle fur Entwicklungshilfe E.V. (EZE), Catholic medical Mission Board (CMMB), Open Society Foundation (OSF) and Oxfam etc.
Thabo’s history of employment is as follows: – Donor Support Sector Specialist (DSSS); Chief Executive Officer, 2003 to date, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Internationally Funded Engagements Division, Johannesburg, Senior Manager, 1999 to 2003, FirstRand, Corporate Finance, Corporate Financial Manager, 1999, Price Waterhouse; Internationally Funded Engagements Division, Johannesburg, Audit Senior, 1996 to 1999, Kessel Feinstein, currently Grant Thornton; Johannesburg, Accountant, March 1996 to June 1996 and Kallweit & Schackermann; Johannesburg, Accountant and Article Clerk, April 1979 to February 1996.
Educational background
B. Comm., UNISA
Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA) – UNISA
Certificate in consulting – AFCAP
Certificate in microfinance – AFCAP
Member of Association of Black Accountants of South Africa (ABASA)
Member of the Institute of Management of South Africa (IMSA)
Continuing education
Activity Based Costing and technical assistance, Uganda, 2001
Consulting for Microfinance, AFCAP-Kenya, 2001
Training of trainers, Operational Risk Management, AFCAP, Cape Town, 2001
Coaching Skills, Price Waterhouse, March 1998
Re-engineering the Audit, Price Waterhouse, August 1997.
Windows 95, MS Word, MS Excel, Price Waterhouse, April 1997.
Assignment Management, Price Waterhouse, September 1996.
Analytical Review and IDEA, Price Waterhouse, September 1996.
Team Asset, Price Waterhouse, July 1998
Company and Individual Taxes, Kessel Feinstein, April 1996.
Small Business Management, South Africa Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), June 1994.