The Evolving Role of Internal Audit

Why Should You Attend:

Changing stakeholder expectations and a new view of risk management are prompting an important shift in the role of internal audit in many organizations. More than ever, internal audit is considered integral to a company’s control environment and is constantly challenged to provide value-added and relevant analyses of an organization’s internal control structure, performance and productivity.

This session will discuss the major focus areas for internal auditing in the coming years, such as corporate governance, enterprise risk management, strategic reviews, ethics audits, and passage to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We will discuss how you can re-examine your views of internal audit from a pure control function to one that actively participates in the development of an organization. By attending this webinar, you will learn how to develop your internal resources to meet the new challenges that your organization faces in the current economic and regulatory environment.

Areas Covered in the Seminar:

• What is Internal Audit?
• Legal and regulatory background.
• Traditional view of Internal Audit.
• Evolving role of Internal Audit.
• Relationship with top management.
• Role of Audit Committee.
• High Value Internal Audits, Social Media, Governance, Risk Management.
• Sarbanes Oxley and the Internal Auditor.

Who Will Benefit:

• Financial Officers
• Board Members
• Internal Auditors
• External Auditors
• Operational Risk Managers
• Potential third part service providers

Instructor Profile:

Paul Gostelow, is an experienced Financial Manager with a proven track record of success within manufacturing, B2B, IT, telecommunications, entertainment, commercial and not for profit market sectors. He has a Legal Degree from the University of Birmingham, UK and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He worked for many years for members of the “Big Four”, mainly in Eastern Europe and Italy. Since 2004 he has run his own consultancy practice specializing in:

• Interim financial management
• Implementation of s302 and s404 Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in Europe for quoted Companies
• Internal audit projects
• Fraud risk assessments and remediation

Topic Background:

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. Internal auditing can improve an organization’s effectiveness and efficiency by providing insight and recommendations based on analyses and assessments of data and business processes. With commitment to integrity and accountability, internal auditing provides value to governing bodies and senior management as an objective source of independent advice.

Internal audit’s role and importance has changed considerably over the past few years. There have been continuing examples of corporate wrong-doing, capital market reform, media focus on internal controls and the evolving expectations of Audit Committees.

In its recent Common Body of Knowledge Study, the Institute of Internal Auditors (based on around 13,500 responses of IIA members and nonmembers in more than 107 countries) indentified various issues in the expected evolution of the roles of the Internal Audit activity:

• The role of the internal audit activity in risk management and governance will continue to increase to become accepted from the perspective of internal audit practitioners as the two most important cornerstones of the profession.
• Respondents expect an increase in the role of the internal audit activity in training audit committee members, an advisory role in strategy development and an educational role for the organization’s personnel.

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