The Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA Global) encourages internal auditors around the world to participate in this important celebration in May; to promote the Internal Audit profession to their audit customers, executive management, boards of directors, students, and others in the business community.
Samantha Maletzky is an Audit Specialist at Nedbank Namibia. She holds an Honors degree in Accounting Sciences, from the University of Pretoria and completed her audit articles with Deloitte Namibia. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Namibia. As team lead on all the audits, her job function entails, planning, executing, and reporting on the audits as per the approved audit plan
Internal Auditing is an independent, objective, assurance and consulting activity that adds value to and improves 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 Auditors are seen as a crucial pillar of good governance, risk management, and controls in the organization. They provide independent, objective assurance that the governance processes, management of risk, and systems of internal control are adequate and effective to mitigate the most significant risks both the current and emerging that threaten the achievement of the Bank’s objectives. “Being in this function helps you to build up a vast understanding of the entire business, as the audit plan is spread across the entire business one is required to understand each business unit in order to identify the correct risks and add value to the business. It is a continuous learning journey,” she said.
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) believes that an organization is best served by a fully resourced and professionally competent internal audit staff that provides value-added services critical to efficient and effective organizational management. Internal audit practitioners are charged with assisting the organization in the effective discharge of responsibilities, promoting the establishment of cost-effective controls, assessing risks, and recommending measures to mitigate those risks.
“As an internal auditor, one should be able to objectively analyze, advise and influence behavior from the highest levels of the organization, which may be subjected to some resistance and disagreement at times and in this trying times in order to fulfill one professional mandate one needs to exhibit integrity. Another trait is natural curiosity and inquisitiveness. One needs to be able to demonstrate a healthy skepticism which is basically having a questioning mind and constantly ask the what-if question to challenge the status quo,” she added.
An integral part of the management team, internal auditors furnish top management with analyses, appraisals, counsel, and information on the activities they review. They also monitor organizational ethics. The daily routine of an Internal Auditor includes the execution of the annual audit plan – which includes the planning, execution, and reporting of the audits’ as per the annual audit plan. Each one of the phases of the audit involves extensive time and continuous engagement with the respective business units that are being audited. On a high level, this entails the audit team having to obtain an understanding of the various key business processes within the business unit that is being audited, identifying the key controls, assessing the adequacy of these key controls against the bank’s Internal Audit methodology, and ultimately testing the effectiveness of the key controls identified.
In a changing world, one does not have to sit in the boardroom or occupy the MD’s chair to recognize the rapid-fire changes going on in today’s business arena. News outlets regularly report on corporate scandals and frauds, privacy invasions, compromised ethics, and governance lapses. These events and the resulting laws and regulations, coupled with electronic commerce and other information technology breakthroughs; mergers, acquisitions, and another organizational restructuring; and issues related to the global marketplace all suggest that things are likely to get even more chaotic. “ Being in this function helps you to build up a vast understanding of the entire business, as the audit plan is spread across the entire business one is required to understand each business unit in order to identify the correct risks and add value to the business. It is a continuous learning journey,” she added.