Stronger audit management platforms seen
KUWAIT CITY, April 4: The KPMG Advisory WLL Kuwait Wednesday organized a seminar on Risk Consulting and Forensics at the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Kuwait City, 'KPMG - cutting through complexity. The seminar brought together around one hundred professionals from across the business community, government sectors and regulators. Prominent speakers from KPMG Europe, regional and local Risk Consult team spoke on the importance of Risk Management, Internal Audit and Forensics in today's fast changing world. Adam Bates, Head of Risk Consulting Advisory Services, UK, spoke on 'Risk in the Boardroom; Carsten Schiewe, Head of Risk Consulting Advisory Services, Germany shed light on 'Evolving role of Internal Audit and Audit Committees; and Altaf Dossa, Head of Forensics, Saudi, Kuwait and Jordan spoke at length on Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Management.
Protect
Dr Rasheed Al-Qenae, Managing Partner, KPMG Kuwait, in his welcome speech introduced the speakers to the delegates and emphasized that as risks have become more complex in today's challenging world, there is urgent need to have a better understanding on integrated risk management solutions to protect investments and profits.
He went on to say the seminar couldn't have come at a better time.
Bates, addressing the delegates emphasized the key understanding of the risk management challenges facing boards and the practical steps that can be taken in terms of risk response.
He further highlighted that organizations which are successful today are aware of the changing world around them and are fully alert to how external trends could affect their businesses.
He said today we find ourselves in a world which is more volatile, more unpredictable, more interconnected, lower tolerance for mistakes and increasing pace of change.
Schiewe provided insights with respect to the evolving role of internal audit and audit committees in strengthening an organization's overall governance process.
He also emphasized that internal audit and risk should be aligned to business outcomes as there is greater scrutiny from consumers, shareholders and regulators, along with a drive to improve organizational transparency, agility and above all integrity.
In terms of internal audit, he said, stronger audit management platforms are seen, so also increasing range of risk management solutions, aligning audit and risk to business outcomes and advances in timelines, relevance and therefore value for audit and risk reporting. This is in addition to greater scrutiny from consumers, shareholders and regulators, along with a drive to improve organizational transparency, integrity and agility.
In the 21st century, global companies are looking to risk and control management to become more strategic and forward looking with a focus on creating as opposed to merely preserving value, he said.
Internal audit is experiencing a shift in its role from providing information to providing interpretation. It is offering and is being expected to offer, increased synthesis and analysis of information to help management identify themes, trends and business challenges.
Boards and audit committees are seeking a 'real time' overarching view of the control environment from internal audit rather than reports on individual areas of the business.
And internal audit should gather and integrate assurances provided by others to provide a view.
Awareness
Altaf Dossa provided awareness on how fraud, bribery and corruption can be managed and controlled.
He said fraud - a criminal deception, can be committed by false representation, by failing to disclose information and by abuse of position.
He added, fraud risk management aims at achieving three core objectives - prevent instances of fraud and misconduct from occurring in the first place, detecting instances when they do occur and responding appropriately and taking corrective action. He disclosed three main components support the reason why people commit fraud - motive, opportunity and rationale.
He went on to say preventative controls are designed to reduce the risk of fraud and misconduct from occurring in the first place; detective controls are designed to uncover fraud and misconduct when it occurs and response controls are designed to take corrective action and remedy the harm caused by fraud or misconduct.
Nonetheless, the successful organizations are those that are alert to the changing world around them, aware of how external trends could affect their businesses, agile to take decisions quickly to take advantage and adaptable to deliver on decisions.
Dr Rasheed expressed his gratitude to the participants for attending the seminar and highlighted that KPMG in Kuwait has been providing various audit, tax and advisory services for a number of years to clients across various industries and has earned the reputation for being a trusted and reliable advisor.
© Arab Times 2012
