Die toepassing van bestuursrekeningkundige beginsels in die klipgroefbedryf
Abstract
South Africa is a developing country, and as a result of a series of factors accompanying the development, great emphasis is laid on growth and development. These factors include amongst others the fast growing population, increasing urbanization, housing shortage and the need for houses, as well as the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Plan (also known as the RDP). All of this points to the fact that expansion in the trade and industrial sector is needed to supply the necessary infrastructure and related needs. Supplying these needs will demand efficient planning, optimal decision making and effective steps from the South African trade sector. In particular the South African building and engineering industry will have to come to the fore to supply the necessary infrastructure. The stone-quarry industry is the greatest supplier of material needed by the building and engineering industry, namely broken stone, aggregate, for the erection of buildings and concrete constructions, and for the construction of roads and railway lines. An increase in the demand for products of the stone-quarry industry will result in greater briskness of trade and stronger competition among existing, as well as possible new entrepreneurs in the industry, especially in the existing circumstances where economic policy supports increased competition. These new demands on the management of concerns, require more efficient and effective planning, decision making and control – which actually entail the functions and fundamental principles of cost and management accounting (business accounting). In South Africa very little literature is available on the stone-quarry industry, in particular on management and the application of the principles of cost and management accounting in such an environment. The greater demands on management as a consequence of the expansion in the trade and industrial sector in a developing country, require better planning, control and decision making in order to bring about more efficient management. Stiff competition and an unfavourable economic climate all lead to the search for efficient and effective management, especially in minor concerns in the industry. The aim of the study is to research and analyse the principles of industrial and cost and management accounting, as well as problems in the decision making, planning and control functions in the stone-quarry industry in the statistical Development Region C which covers the geographical province of the Orange Free State. An empirical research project was launched on the application of the principles of cost and management accounting in the stone-quarry industry. Recommendations are made regarding coping with and solving specific problems in the industry, and the general application of the principles of industrial and managerial accountancy in the industry as a whole, with a view to improving planning, decision making and control, and ultimately the whole of the management process.