Strategic Internal Auditing
Enhance internal audit’s strategic role to improve business performance
Accredited by: LONDON INSTITUTE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT SIGNATURE PROGRAMME
Who should attend?
- Delegates who have some auditing experience, either directly as auditors or from within the quality assurance sector seeking to develop further their auditing skills and best practice approach to the development of the internal audit function in private and public sector organisations.
- Junior Managers, Fresh Graduates & Final Semester Students to acquire a promising career in a reputable organization.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course delegates will be able to:
- Ensure their reports integrate risk for decision making processes
- Identify and assess financial crime risks within the control environment
- Engage effectively with stakeholders and deliver assurance standards on the culture of the organisation
- Promote and enhance the function of the organisation’s Chief Risk Officer
Course Content
The Role and Function of Internal Audit
- Key goals of the internal audit function
- Ensuring auditor objectivity
- Avoidance of conflicts of interest within auditing
- Auditor skillset
Conducting Effective Audits
- Pre-audit planning
- Effective audit sampling techniques
- Recording findings during auditing
- Effective stakeholder engagement
Audit Structures
- The audit committee’s role
- Developing the audit charter
- The external auditor’s role
- Developing and improving best practices
Financial Crime Risks
- Money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions risks
- AML controls
- CTF controls
- Sanctions controls – matches
- Trade-based money laundering risks
- Customer due diligence controls
- Enhanced customer due diligence controls
- Consideration of money laundering risks in practice evidenced by the organisation
- Beneficial Ownership Transparency – individuals and entities
- Testing operational efficiency v. financial crime risk prevention in practice
- Training and awareness programmes
Audit Report Writing
- Ensuring objective comments
- Ensuring use of constructive language
- Financial crime compliance terms and abbreviations for internal auditors
- Improvement recommendations
- Continuous improvement techniques
Risk – Based Auditing
- Identifying areas of risk
- Identifying new areas of risk
- Classification and quantification of risk areas
- Identifying potential interface of existing and new areas of risk
- Developing audit and re – audit frequency in alignment with risk
- Overview of emerging and evolving threats
Conducting Effective Audits
- The auditor’s role as a consultant
- Utilising audit reporting to inform organisational policy development
- Continuous improvement initiatives and supervision
- Measuring improvement – toolkit for objective measurement and demonstration of audit output improvements
Financial Crime Compliance
- Record keeping procedures
- Controls to identify potentially suspicious activities
- Trade finance transactions
- Trade processing controls by processing staff
- Red flagging procedures
- Pre-determined thresholds systems and controls
- Escalations
- Actions taken by senior management
- Evidence and awareness of senior management evidencing how crime risks evolve in organisational type of business
Engaging with the Audit Structure
- Making effective recommendations and business cases
- Presenting information effectively
- OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) for internal auditors
- Contributing meaningfully to the development of the long – term audit strategy
- Upgrading the profile of internal audit within the organisation