Monrovia — Internal Audit Agency has begun a month-long training for heads and deputy heads of Internal Audit Functions assigned at Government Ministries and Agencies.
The objective of the training is to enhance the skills and expertise of internal auditors to effectively and efficiently evaluate and recommend improvements to the effectiveness of governance, risk management, and control over public resources.
Internal Auditors will also be trained to produce accurate, complete, reliable, timely, and useful reports that assist the management of public sector institutions to achieve their objectives.
Making remarks at the start of the training program, IAA Director General, David A. Kemah, admonished participants to consider the training as their own personal development.
Mr. Kemah Said, when auditors are equipped with the necessary skills, people will listen when they speak and their reports will be respected.
He announced that the IAA must own Internal Audit functions in Liberia, and not just only in the public sector.
He stated that this can only be achieved when internal auditors themselves are prepared for the task.
The head of the IAA also disclosed that there are plans for his Agency to expand audit functions to the counties when resources become available.
He further stated that the Agency will reinforce audit recommendations through the Audit Recommendations implementation Unit, to ensure that all recommendations are implemented and non-compliance officials will have to document reasons for not implementing recommendations.
In conclusion, Mr. Kemah spoke highly on the reporting capacity of auditors and on the introduction of a scorecard, something he believes will help the internal audit process in the field.
The training which began on Monday, January 16, 2023, is expected to end on February 9, 2023. It is held at the Corina Hotel on 24th Street Sinkor, Monrovia, with the theme : "Equipping Internal Auditors to Fight Corruption, Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the Public Sector of Liberia."
It will cover the following topics:
IAA's fifteen priority areas, Risk assessment, Audit planning, audit Field work and audit report writing.
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Others are: Audit documentation, audit evidence, fraud audit, critical thinking for internal auditors, Data analytics for internal auditors and professional ethics and code of conduct, among others.
Upon completion of the training, participants will be knowledgeable on how to perform risk assessment and develop risk-based audit work plan, understand, review, verify, ascertain compliance, score client entities, and gather, analyze, and communicate evidence in an audit as well as be able to identify the eight areas of waste of public resources, among others.
