by Sikandar Usmani | Oct 31, 2024 | Risk Management
What do international standards, several best practices and a multitude of frameworks over risk management have in common? Certainly, their aim and objectives. But a little less obvious is their approach. They intend for us to be systematic, disciplined, meticulous,...
by Sikandar Usmani | Oct 21, 2024 | Governance
While scrolling down LinkedIn posts, there was this interesting update that caught my attention for all the wrong reasons. While I misread it initially to mean something more offensive about the relationship between a leader and an organization, its correct read...
by Sikandar Usmani | Oct 10, 2024 | GRC
Ever wondered, what a high performing Internal Audit (IA) team would look like, or more appropriately what are its characteristics? Not sure if there could be a high performing IA team? Or if there’s a performance by IA through which it could be gauged? Well yes,...
by Sikandar Usmani | Oct 1, 2024 | GRC
Could audits be void of judgments and assumptions? To answer that let’s ask another question; could entity’s design of Governance, Risk Management and Control Systems be void of their judgements, estimations and assumptions? Risk, being the effect of uncertainty on...
by Sikandar Usmani | Sep 20, 2024 | GRC
Unfortunately, that’s true…. even in 21st century audits and auditors could be ‘productive’ enough to be called a pain in the a**. And it’s not because that’s a perception that precedes us, it’s also because it’s a reputation that follows us when we work our a** off...
by Sikandar Usmani | Sep 12, 2024 | GRC
Is there a theoretical difference between the components of external and internal audit risks or is that difference attributable to how we understand risk as external auditor and as internal auditor? What is the audit risk made up of firstly? Conceptually, both the...
by Sikandar Usmani | Aug 30, 2024 | Governance
In a perfect world, it shouldn’t matter. Management concurrence shouldn’t be needed, and it should not be for the internal auditors to procure it. How about external auditors? Do they need it or even vie for it? Certainly not, because management understands that it’s...
by Sikandar Usmani | Aug 20, 2024 | GRC
It’s not as simple as the words suggest it to mean and certainly it has something for both the auditor and the auditee. But self-auditing has strings attached to it that extend well beyond auditing yourself (auditors and auditee), in terms of its implications. In the...
by Sikandar Usmani | Aug 10, 2024 | GRC
Indeed, anyone could be fooled into believing that reconciliation is a straightforward concept even with the auditor’s perspective in mind, but is it really understood the way it’s believed? In my experience, it is a classic case of being easier said than done,...
by Sikandar Usmani | Jul 30, 2024 | GRC
What does it take for a business to thrive? Well, if thriving is what the business intends to! And it doesn’t matter what thriving means to it; could be anything depending on its purpose. No, if you thought I was to write internal audit, it being my passion, you were...
