Page 34 - Internal Auditor Middle East - December 2017

TO COMMENT on the article,
EMAIL the author at slobodan.dimitrovski@gmail.com Frosting fundemantals

ethical? Does a corporation equal God? a promotion, or was penalized, or lost a doing a tremendous job. We are juggling
Can a corporation decide to negatively job due to some of our disclosures, you assignments, managing expectations,
impact the lives of thousands, as their would probably find his opinion in a poll investigating frauds, helping companies
medicine is “good enough”? What about somewhere – so should the consultants. improve their processes, management
the doctor that prescribed chemotherapy If you want me to hire you, you’d better of risks, governance, and saving a lot of
for people who did not have cancer? He be level with me. And do a research for money while we are at it. While managing
benefitted financially from ruining lives. a subject which cannot bring you extra our relations with the clients, I may add. By
And people trust doctors by default... And revenue, or expand a market. If you cannot definition, people do not like being audited.
consultants…
do that, at least hire the IIA to validate Unlike external auditors, we do not do
Back to our Apocalypse… Like I said, in the research you have done for their a “hit and run” once a year, but we stay
the age of social media, click baiting seems profession. You owe us that much, after all, here and face the fallout from our work,
to be everything. Sensational news sell, you are offering internal audit services to in terms of relations. Are we pressured
and suddenly everyone is an expert. And clients yourselves. to alter findings? – Yes! Of course. It is in
no one listens to the actual voice of the the nature of our work. Some people even
profession, the IIA. criticized the profession over this online.
As for internal auditors, we have a lot of We are not the ones doing the pressuring.
So, let us say, for the sake of argument, What we do is we stand our ground. And
that a corporation has just paid billions of work to do: if we lose our job over it, so be it. You can
dollars to settle out of court. Imagine there - From educating boards, managers, get a new job, you cannot get your integrity
was an article in the news about it recently. and more importantly students on what back.
And imagine they tell you, your profession internal audit is. If you expect a healthy
is declining, is in danger, and they can skin from a spinal surgeon, you cannot By definition, an internal auditor is
help you out. Use their “magic pill”, the blame him for your expectation gap. someone who prefers to work in the
solutions you would be charged for. background, and someone that digs into
- Educating human resource professionals those papers, contracts or documents
You can grab the bait… Or, you can listen and recruiters – how many vacancies are that no one wants to read. An internal
to what the profession has to say about out there, where the internal auditor is
it. Read IIA reports, publications, blogs, expected to be a CPA or ACCA? How auditor would not be the one to brag his
achievements, so we are mostly left with
network on conferences, obtain insights many organizational charts where the this skewed perception of reality, that our
from your colleagues, from your own internal audit reports to the CFO? Is there profession is in danger, or that it is not
experience. Leave your cave, and interact even a requirement for the candidate doing a good job. Mostly from external
with the stakeholders. What keeps them up to be a member of the IIA? Would you
at night? What do they need our help with? hire a lawyer who is not part of the legal sources.
Be the water-cooler internal auditor and chamber? That does not mean we do not have our
mingle with employees to feel their pulse, “battle” stories to tell. Maybe we effected
understand their fears. - Educating politicians and legislation savings that cover the internal audit budget
bodies – how many laws are out there for for the next 100 years or so. Maybe we
I am not saying our profession is perfect, internal audit which completely disregard
far from it. But is external audit perfect? the IIA, and even promote external detected some major fraudulent practices.
Were there not a number of scandals in auditors for internal audit positions? I am Maybe we alerted the board on some
the past? What is the level of satisfaction of talking developing markets here, countries critical risks that later turned out exactly
their clients? I can only assume very high, where the profession is relatively new. like we predicted. Maybe we helped
as companies are paying for the report, and implement a major new improvement
I have yet to see a negative external audit - Educating internal auditors – mingle with via our consulting engagements. The
report. Oh, the things I’ve seen. But that your clients. Get to know what they feel, IIA might do well to think of a way
is a different topic altogether, I shall tackle establish a relationship. You are not a police to highlight some of the tremendous
those ethics some other time. officer who is there to put them in jail. achievements our colleagues are doing.
While protecting sensitive information,
I am now a consultant. I have crossed - Rigorously enforce the code of ethics of course.
the river to the other side, I have so far – there are bad apples, for sure. I have
criticized in this article. But one thing I witnessed a few of them in action. Looking forward to your comments.
would never dream of doing, is inventing But, do not despair, no need to be Slobodan Dimitrovski
a problem for a client, in order for me to
fix it for them. While internal auditors discouraged. It is a natural evolution of a Slobodan Dimitrovski
profession.
should strive to become a trusted advisor
– and tell that to the manager who missed Frankly, if someone asks me, we are

32 INTERNAL AUDITOR - MIDDLE EAST DECEMBER 2017