ethics - The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa

MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
a host of pictures of trophies, I was particularly
drawn to the one we eventually
chose. It consists of a pair of hands holding
up the globe with Africa in the front view.
The symbolism I saw in it is internal audit
playing a signifi cant role in protecting our
world. It seems to me that we do need to
see internal audit making more bold statements
about the risks that we face in our
society. With that I would like to congratulate
this year’s Internal Auditor of the Year
winner, Kokela Siqendu. She certainly has
made us proud.
On refl ecting on that huge task on the shoulders
of the profession, referred to above, I am
6 | IA ADVISER September 2011
also reminded of another sobering thought
put to us by Michael Judin on the last day of
the conference. Under the new Companies
Act internal auditors can be sued. We need
to take this message very seriously. Internal
auditors will be judged based on what
could be reasonably expected of them in
their positions. Now, this gives me sleepless
nights when I think about the numbers of internal
auditors who have not yet been able
to meet the minimum requirements of the
Institute in terms of ensuring that they are
competent to do their jobs eff ectively and
effi ciently. Michael made it clear that where
companies are sued, the lawyers will call the
internal auditors to the stand. We had bet-
Dr Claudelle von Eck, Chief Executive Offi cer: IIA SA
ter get our ducks in a row. The last thing I
would like to see is one of our members being
splashed all over the media after being
sentenced to a term in jail.
This year the conference speakers have challenged
us like we have never been challenged
before. From encouraging us to spend
more time thinking about the future and how
the processes in their organisations need to
change to meet the future head on, to becoming
more IT savvy, to coming out of the
trenches and spending more time on looking
at the strategic issues. It is apparent that we
need to raise the bar to an even higher level
than ever before.
SA WALKS AWAY WITH AWARDS
South Africa has produced the 100,000th qualifying CIA. Portia ti Ngesi N i was honoured h d on stage t at t the th international i t ti l conference f andd
IIA South Africa also received an award for its avid support of the CIA program.