Masterclasses

Strong corporate governance is underpinned by continual risk management, and in an unpredictable climate, never has this been brought into sharper focus. If you haven’t yet considered a risk-based audit approach, now might be the ideal time to discover its benefits.

With growing pressures on organisations today to identify and manage their business risks, having effective controls in place is the surest way to prevent undesirable effects and leverage opportunities for improvement. This course specifically addresses risks relating to ESG, Cybersecurity and Business Continuity.

Though the onus for scoping and tackling risks is largely on the senior management team, internal audit plays an integral role in providing assurance that those risks have been well handled. This activity, however, must be carried out within the context of a robust risk management framework - only when this is in place is an organisation ready for risk-based internal auditing (RBIA).

Performance and risk management are seen by some as two ends of the same spectrum. Performance measurement and management is about steering an enterprise towards a profitable and viable future, whilst risk management is about avoiding the pitfalls that can overwhelm and ultimately put an enterprise out of business.

Organizations still see risk management as a quarterly review of risks, whereas it should influence the achievement of objectives.

Realtime ongoing monitoring,
Datamining,
Alignment between detection controls and the risk dashboard,
Alignment between risk appetite and actual risk,
Alignment between performance and the variation in performance,
Alignment between KPI's and KRI's,
Risk averse versus risk aggressive.

Join our team who recently designed and implemented risk management in the Government of Botswana and the Government of Lesotho on a project funded by the Commonwealth. Gain insight and lessons learnt, success stories and stories of failure.

A sustainable supply chain is one that uses environmentally and socially sustainable practices at every stage to protect the people and environments across the whole chain. This means an organisation upholds environmental and social standards for their own operations and their suppliers’ operations

The environmental standards include issues like environmental degradation, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and water security. The social standards include issues like working conditions, forced labour, fair labour practices, and health and safety.

There is a misconception that the word “sustainability” solely means “environmentally sustainable” – that something is good for our planet. Many businesses and people use this term without considering social sustainability.

Social sustainability is equally as important as environmental sustainability. A product that is good for the environment but has negative consequences for workers’ or local communities is not truly sustainable.

The 'right amount of assurance’ depends on the risk appetite of the organisation. There should be alignment of control validation/assurance approaches and efforts across the organisation, driving efficiency and the right levels of comfort.

Risk management is the foundation of the combined assurance process and organisations should establish risk-based criteria for dealing with control failures on a consistent and strategically aligned basis to ensure organisational objectives and goals are achieved. Key issues that are being dealt with include the following:

How do we implement Combined Assurance?
What are the building blocks?
How does Combined Assurance add value to the Strategic Planning and the decision-making processes?
What is the most cost effective way to implement Combined Assurance?
Which software allows for seamless reporting?
Is there a correlation between Combined Assurance and the Portfolio View of Risks?
How does Combined Assurance Reporting integrate with Risk Appetite and Variations in Performance?

RISK-BASED AUDITING

Botswana

S-Africa

Lesotho

S-Africa

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT

S-Africa

Botswana

Lesotho

S-Africa

Namibia

Tanzania

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

S-Africa

Botswana

Lesotho

S-Africa

Namibia

Tanzania

COMBINED ASSURANCE

S-Africa

Botswana

Lesotho

S-Africa

Namibia

Tanzania