Eric Small, President of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Barbados Chapter.
Local internal auditors continue to face the challenge of some organisations within which they work, not knowing or appreciating the role they play.
That’s according to Eric Small, President of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Barbados Chapter. He made the comments while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the IIA’s Awareness Month Breakfast Seminar, which was held at the Accra Beach Hotel.
“As internal auditors I see ourselves as the conscience of the organisation, that little voice that tells you, you are going a little bit off track and this is what you have to do to get back on track. Our remit is to help persons improve controls to the point that they can then achieve their organisational objectives,” he said.
Small added, “In the last few minutes of the session just now, the presenter was speaking to if you have an audit team and who do you report to. If you report to a financial controller and you are trying to identify issues that the financial controller might be doing, you would tend to get quieted.”
He made the point while noting that occasionally, internal auditors have lost their positions for “standing up”, and employing the ethical best practice. With that in mind, he said it is important that persons are educated as to what the role and responsibility of the internal auditor is supposed to be.
“If we can do that, we can help organisations to better themselves and by doing that we strengthen the nation as a whole because then we have strong, effective organisations that are profitable,” the president stated.
He maintained that if internal auditors are allowed to do their jobs, and the information is passed on to the relevant authorities within the company and they act on it, then there can be significant improvement in businesses across the country.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the Association, Krystle Howell, added that within a company, the internal auditor also acts as an advisor to help a company get ahead of the curve and makes sure that there are no risks to the controls that are in place, to meet the company’s objectives.
“You need to look at the benefits. It is not just another person there to tell you what’s going wrong or to come in. We are changing the mindset that we are like the police; we are trying to get persons to come out there and see us as persons who can help you, especially before persons on the external side, like FSC [Financial Service Commission], comes in and finds all the deficiencies within your organisation. See us as persons who help you to get things cleaned up before somebody else, who can inflict fines and penalties on you, finds them first,” she said.
Howell explained that a company’s failure to comply with certain legislation and regulations could result in fines as high as $500 000. But if they can make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed, they can help the organisation save a lot of money.
“Think of us as preventative care, [like] when you go to the dentist,” she added. (JRT)