2015

May 31, 2015

EHS and Internal Auditors: A Natural Coalition in the Battle for Risk Management

Last week, The IIA received some exciting news! The merger of The Institute of Internal Auditors with the leading environmental, health, and safety (EHS) professional organization, The Auditing Roundtable, received formal approval from New York state regulators, finalizing a partnership that holds great promise for EHS professionals.

The IIA’s new Environmental, Health & Safety Audit Center, launched in April as part of the merger agreement, is designed to serve EHS professionals’ training, continuing-education, research, and networking needs.

The IIA also recognizes the importance of having highly qualified EHS practitioners. This is why since 1997, it has partnered with the Auditing Roundtable to offer a suite of certifications from the Board of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditor Certification (BEAC), which will continue to be a vital part of our service to EHS professionals.…

May 18, 2015

Internal Audit’s Work With General Counsel Doesn’t Have to Be a “Privilege”

In my previous post, I discussed some potential challenges that can strain relationships between CAEs and their organizations’ general counsels. In it, I included five principles that I believe can help guide those relationships.

Two of those — mutual respect and the recognition that each party can agree to disagree when warranted — frame an important aspect of the relationship that sometimes leads to friction between internal audit and legal: If and when should general counsel influence how audit findings are reported?

The IIA recognizes the importance and complexity of the relationship between internal audit and the general counsel’s organization in its professional guidance.…

May 11, 2015

For Internal Audit — Is the General Counsel Friend or Foe?

When I first became a CAE, it didn’t take me long to realize that the relationship with my organization’s chief legal officer (general counsel) was going to be complex. I quickly found him to be a great resource as he and his team were ready and willing to help my staff with important legal advice during ongoing audits. He also seemed genuinely invested in my success as a young addition to the organization’s leadership team.

But it wasn’t long before we knocked heads. He had assigned members of his team to investigate a serious contracting irregularity that potentially involved a violation of law.…

May 4, 2015

​​Enduring Awareness of Internal Audit’s Value Takes More Than a Month

It is May again, and that means International Internal Audit Awareness Month is upon us. The IIA, along with its North American chapters and more than 100 affiliated institutes around the world will be promoting the value that internal audit brings to fostering stronger internal risk management, internal controls, and corporate governance. Awareness month provides an opportunity for practitioners to plan events, gather proclamations, and do other outreach. There is no doubt this positive and coordinated effort helps to build awareness and appreciation of the profession.

Despite all the energy, I fear that much more needs to be done to build and sustain an enduring awareness of the profession’s value.…

April 28, 2015

Internal Audit Quality: Coping With Snails and Rabbits

Occasionally, it helps to take a light-hearted look at a serious topic. I have been speaking and writing about the imperative of internal audit timeliness for more than two decades. I even dedicated three chapters of my book, Lessons Learned on the Audit Trail, to this enduring challenge. As I often note, even the most carefully planned and meticulously conducted audit will serve no value if the results are delivered too late to make a difference. At the same time, I have been cautioning about audit processes that result in untimely audit results, I have also cautioned about the dangers of auditing too quickly.…

April 20, 2015

Navigating the New Internal Audit Talent Shortage: Strategies for Success

Over the years, I have noted that the demand for internal audit talent can be cyclical. I’ve concluded that the need for qualified practitioners is influenced by a handful of factors that ebb and flow.

For the first time in more than a decade, there is mounting evidence of an emerging internal audit talent shortage driven by factors including an improving economy, heightened regulatory oversight, competition for talent from other industries and — most notably — growing risks associated with cybersecurity.

Any number of studies, including The IIA’s 2015 North American Pulse of Internal Audit, point to a dearth of skilled internal auditors and the commensurate rise in competition to hire the best candidates.…

April 20, 2015

Internal Audit: Providing Assurance not Insurance

Regular readers of this blog know my assertions about the value of internal audit. Our profession offers an indispensable service that is essential for businesses, governments, and non-profits to operate at the highest levels.

Further, as the challenges of the global marketplace demand higher efficiencies, insight, and vision to stay ahead of the competition, a good internal audit function can be uniquely positioned to offer a holistic and critical view of operations.

These growing demands create the need for increasingly complex and sophisticated strategies for improving efficiencies, defending against fraud and corruption, and managing risk. But one of the bedrock services of internal audit remains providing assurance.…

April 13, 2015

China: The New Frontier for Internal Auditing

As I write this week’s blog, I find myself once again in perhaps one of the most dynamic places in the world for the internal audit profession – China.

This week, representatives from more than 80 countries and territories are in Beijing for The Institute of Internal Auditors’ annual Global Council to share their perspectives on the future of the profession. I think it is particularly appropriate that we are gathered where the frontier of our profession offers some of the brightest prospects for the future.

This ancient and beautiful country has great influence, from global economics and geopolitics to space exploration and cybersecurity.…

April 6, 2015

Inspectors General: The Four Pillars of Their Credibility

Once again, a U.S. Inspector General (IG) has come under scrutiny, this time for behavior being described as a pattern of misconduct, including allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers and questionable hiring practices.

During my tenure as IG for the Tennessee Valley Authority, I understood the importance of fostering an organization that carried out its work free of interference and one that demanded the highest principles. So these kinds of allegations are particularly troubling to me. 

It is much too early to determine the validity of the allegations being made against the IG at the Department of Commerce, and it would be unfair for me or others to comment on them directly until a final investigation and due process has run its course.…

March 30, 2015

Managing an Internal Audit Career: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Go?

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job as president and CEO of The IIA is the opportunity to meet young professionals just starting their careers in internal audit. These interactions remind me of the reasons I joined the profession and they never fail to re-invigorate my own passion for what we do.

Recently, I met with a group of newly minted internal auditors at the South Pacific and Asia Conference (SOPAC) hosted by IIA–Australia. As is often the case in these meetings, my young colleagues quizzed me about career advice. For the most part, their questions were similar to those I typically hear: “Should I specialize in a particular area of internal audit?”…