16 Sep 2024

Internal auditors have been encouraged to leverage new technology and start doing things differently in order to remain relevant.

Speaking at the 13^th Institute of Internal Auditors Botswana annual conference in Gaborone recently, Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) executive director, Ms Serty Leburu advised  internal auditors to be conscious of emerging technologies  such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) which had the potential to threaten their job.

Ms Leburu said this when sharing insights on the next generation auditors and how they facilitated boards to shape corporate culture for sustainable performance.

“The internal auditing function is essential in an organisation as it helps boards with the risk culture audits, which helps them to understand and mitigate risks associated with corporate culture, assess organisational risk culture and its alignment with corporate values and engage with various regulatory stakeholders to understand the broader impact of risk culture and influence policy,” she said.

Additionally, she said the risk culture audit also helped boards in reviewing adherence to ethical standards and regulatory compliance to ensure corporate culture promoted integrity and transparency.

Ms Leburu also highlighted the need for internal auditors to consider becoming independently self-regulative, conscious and bold enough to stand for what was right, owing to the increasing digitalisation of most organisation processes.

This, she said was a debate that board members needed to have and decide on whether they wanted internal auditors to be independent completely of the business or be independently self-regulative and advise businesses accordingly.

“Internal auditors should advance with new technology, be able to predict the future and basically be change agents, be able to influence, recommend, lead and guide organisations and leaders, accordingly,” she added.

The executive director indicated that previously, internal auditors were regarded as control gatekeepers, assurance providers and compliance assessors.

“But then we said no, we need that to change and also integrate sustainability into auditing. This will help in evaluation of the organisation’s contribution to sustainable development, providing insight on alignment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to organisation’s strategy, objectives and values, providing thought leadership on Environmental, Social and Governance risk and periodic assessment of SDG factors,” she said.

Presenting on the role of internal auditors in enhancing governance to make the country attractive to foreign direct investment, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) chief executive officer, Mr Keletsositse Olebile said internal auditing contributed to overall organisational effectiveness and risk management, hence indirectly benefitting investors by reducing operational and compliance risks.

Mr Olebile added that by safeguarding, providing assurance and transparency to stakeholders, the internal audit function helped to ensure that investment activities were conducted in a reliable, compliant and transparent manner.

For his part, Ghana’s Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) president, Mr Joseph Zumasigee said internal auditing strengthened the organisation’s ability to create and sustain value by providing the board and management with independent, risk based and objective assurance, advice, insight and foresight.

Mr Zumasigee said internal auditing also enhanced the organisation’s governance, risk management and control processes, decision-making and oversight, reputation and credibility with its stakeholders, as well as its ability to serve the public interest.

“Internal auditing is most effective when it is performed by competent professionals in conformance with the global internal audit standards, which are set in the public interest,” he said.

He added that the internal audit function was also most effective when independently positioned with direct accountability to the board. ends