Gaborone — The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) got its first internal auditors last week after 12 officers successfully finished a training programme with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Botswana chapter.

The officers completed the course last month. They were inaugurated last week and given certificates at a ceremony held at Sir Seretse Khama Barracks Officers' Mess. They completed the Advanced Internal Auditing Course One, facilitated by different professional auditors from IIA. At the ceremony, IIA Botswana chapter president Lesedi Lesetedi, congratulated the BDF for training the officers as professional internal auditors. She pointed out that this is a challenging and interesting profession with a lot of impediments.

"I believe you will agree with me that not all employers or organisations know much about the internal audit profession. If we are to go by the number of adverts we see in the newspapers, employers looking for internal auditors mention qualifications which are not necessarily from the profession," she lamented. The confusion is made worse by those who cannot differentiate internal auditors from other professionals like accountants and external auditors. Lesetedi said that some organisations employ internal auditors but do not know what role they are supposed to play.

She said internal auditors will be taken seriously if they put more effort in clarifying their role and importance in any organisation. She encouraged the BDF graduates to use the knowledge imparted to them and add value to the military. She challenged the officers to continue learning more about the dynamic profession. Lesetedi lamented that a number of big institutions have collapsed because they did not have the services of internal auditors. She said there is a perception that internal auditors act like policemen in companies though this is not the case.

She stated that IIA has evolved because of the growth in internal auditing and in response to new management needs caused by the increasing size and complexity of corporate and government organisations. Brigadier Tumelo Paledi of BDF expressed optimism that the training will benefit the armed forces. "We all know that professions such as law, accounting and other professional institutes are guided by a set of standards and code of ethics," he said.

He explained that the course provided a deeper insight in the conduct of audit engagement from cradle to grave. It also dealt with understanding the Value for Money Audit (VMA), operational and performance audits. "The course equipped participants with skills on contract auditing which they need on daily basis during development of assurance and consulting services for the BDF command," he said.

He explained that the training of the soldiers by IIA is meant to add value to the BDF governance process. "The course also defined risk and provided methods of controlling and managing risk through the process of internal auditing," he said.