Chennai: Given the spate of corporate scams and rising cases of bankruptcy filings by big enterprises, the role of internal auditors has assumed critical importance to ensure transparency in an organization.
With an objective to equip internal auditors with the right skill sets to face the emerging challenges in the corporate world, a two-day conference is being organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) India on 5th and 6th February 2010 in Chennai. The 34th all India conference on internal audit would have a theme of 'Responding to challenges of the next decade' and the technical sessions have been structured under three parallel tracks which consist of major issues to be addressed by auditors in the decade ahead.
Speaking at a curtain raiser for the all India conference held on Wednesday, IIA - International Board Chairman Roderick M Winters said internal auditors have the 'potential to tangibly change the outcome of an organization and the growing expectation from them could be met by raising their skill level through training.' While the auditors have made great strides in India and rest of the world, he noted the accounting professionals have enormous opportunity in a dynamic global economy.
Further, the requirements of internal auditors have gone up as they now have to understand various elements of risk management, cost control, governance, technology audit and other new parameters in an emerging scenario, he said. 'Technology is key enabler for auditors to broaden their role in an organization and to absorb it proper training is necessary,' he informed. On the spate of corporate scams that had rocked the US economy of late, Winters pointed out internal auditors have to pass the 'integrity test' which was of utmost necessity for these professionals. 'In the US, they have to understand and manage different forms of corporate risks and strategise the growth plans of companies,' he said.
IIA India president P C Anand said at least 250-300 delegates from top corporate houses were expected to take part in the conference and each of the three parallel tracks would have keynote speakers who would dwell on a specific topic for discussion through four sessions each. Polaris Software Lab CMD Arun Jain would inaugurate the national seminar, while Siva group chief financial officer Sanjeev Bafna would deliver the valedictory address.
The conference technical chair, P R Loganathan said the parallel tracks having four sessions each would focus on three major challenges - leveraging emerging technologies in audit practices; redesigning governance systems for corporate sustainability; and developing audit solutions for new business models. 'India is on fast track of progress despite global recession with service sector accounting for 54 per cent of the GDP which is projected to grow at 8.8 per cent in 2009 and unemployment rate having come down to 7.20 for the same year,' he said. In a fast changing economy, the old processes and methodologies being used by internal auditors would be inadequate to deal with emerging challenges, he said.
Florida-based IIA is an international body dedicated to further the cause of internal auditors and has a global membership of 1.65 lakh with chapters in 65 countries. IIA India has nearly 4,000 members and networked with six chapters in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
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