UAE And Middle East Fastest Growing Regions For Internal Auditors: IIA Global Chairman

Naohiro Mouri, Chairman of the Board of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) has said the Middle East, including the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) countries, has been a growing region for internal audit profession and  also one of the fastest growing areas for the IIA, which now has surpassed the membership of 200,000.

Talking to the media after at the 19^th Regional Internal Audit Conference, hosted by the UAE Internal Auditors Association (UAE-IAA) in Abu Dhabi, he said: “I clearly see a huge potential in this region. We had the international conference in Dubai last year that attracted over 3,000 attendants which is by far the biggest in the IIA history.”

The largest and most important gathering of the internal auditors in the region has seen the attendance of more than 550 experts and specialists in internal auditing.

The IIA is the internal audit profession’s most widely-recognized advocate, educator, and provider of standards, guidance, and certifications. Established in 1941, the IIA today serves over 200,000 members from more than 170 countries and territories.

On the issue of the internal auditors’ community adopting technology, Mouri said: “As you can see, the things that have been discussed here at the conference signifies that there is interest here in the adoption of technology, but  it varies from company to company both in the government and private sectors – on the expected lines.”

He said the global body will issue guidance on how internal auditors should adopt technology and how they should leverage technology and use them practically.

“Clearly we have Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain coming in. For all of these, we have done research and for some of them we have already issued guidance. More will be coming soon.”

The IIA Global Board Chairman said there was a wider scope for internal auditors to move up professionally in organisations as internal audit was actually being viewed as the source of talent. “So, the CFO is one way and CEO is another and they can be chief risk managers and they can also be the board members.”

He also agreed that cyber breach is the biggest risk. The top risks facing the industry are cyber security, data collection and dissemination and adopting technology for changing the way audit is performed now.  “However, mitigating the risk is not the responsibility of internal audit alone. It is actually the management’s responsibility. We are here to find the risk and then pinpoint the risk to them so that we can work together to mitigate.”

On the issue of the number of auditors becoming less in the future than what is now because of technology adoption,  he said it depends on the organisation and how the organisation adopts the technology. “There are some industries that do not need to adopt technology at all, like the pottery industry, which has been there for centuries and they will continue to use the technique in the traditional way. If the internal auditor in the pottery company is not adopting technology itself, we need not worry about it. But if the customer actually wants to start using smart phone to buy pottery, then that’s a different story.”