Reading Time: 6 minutes Would you be happy if your financial advisor found an error in your account activity that resulted in you gaining $30,000? I would imagine most of us would be happy about that. If you would …
More Board Games – Why Honesty is a Long Term Strategy Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutes As children, we are told that honesty is the best policy. We are also told that But the truth about truth, is that it is one of the hardest things to hold on to. Society …
Reading Time: 4 minutes I want you to think back to that one friend who was always honest with you. You know the one. While you were prancing around showing off that new dress or suit, they quietly told …
Boards Must Do Better – The Undermining of Internal Audit Read More »
Reading Time: 2 minutes By now, many stakeholders realize the value of an empowered and effective internal audit function. These functions provide stakeholders with independent evaluations of an organization’s operating environment. Management also benefits from these independent evalutions, however, global acceptance by management is not as consistent as stakeholder acceptance. I firmly believe some of this has to do with the fact that internal audit functions are often mandated. Few of us like to be told “what to do”. New York Stock Exchange listed organizations are required to have audit functions. NASDAQ recently proposed mandating audit functions for its listed organizations. So if you must expend time, money and efforts on an audit function, why not utilize it to benefit the organization? Thankfully many organization do just that. However, there are some organizations that make a conscience effort to stifle internal audit functions. Moreover, many stifle the activity under the guise of support. Here are three ways a management team can stifle internal audit
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am not sure if there are more people committing fraud, more getting caught, better fraud news coverage or a combination of all, but there seems to be new fraud stories hitting the headlines daily. There seems to be no shortage of individuals willing to risk their freedom and reputation for a few dollars. They range from small to large dollar amounts, to elaborate & sophisticated or simplistic & stupid. Take for example
1. The million dollar Michigan lottery winner who was recently sentenced to probation for receiving $5,475 in food assistance after winning.
2. The convicted rapist who continued to apply for housing benefits
Reading Time: 2 minutes Organizations must tread diligently in this new world of “tweet” this, “like” that, “pin” those, “Linked” in and “Red” it. Organizations are more and more realizing the impact of social media on their business. We are now starting to see social media policies, social media managers, content writers and other opportunities in this growing field. Many realize that a carefully managed strategy can increase customer base, brand loyalty and sales. When sales are affected, management will adopt policies to drive social media strategy in a direction that best benefits the organization. Now, the question I ask is
Reading Time: 2 minutes The role of the Board in organizations is one of oversight. Boards are charged with representing various stakeholder groups to ensure the organization fulfill their mission, vision, goals and objectives. A strong Board provides unparalleled guidance. A weak Board can lead (or oversee) an organization down a path to destruction. Given the significance of the role, there is much discussion about what a successful Board should look like.
As internal auditors, we support the Board by identifying, evaluating and reporting on the