15 - 20 June 2012

Working Group on Quality Assurance and Plenary Meeting

Danubius Hotel Gellért in Budapest, Hungary

Two back to back training events were held in June 2012 in Hungarian capital city.

The aim of two day 16th working session (June 15- 16, 2012) was to provide training in the quality assurance reviews. The workshop was targeted at internal auditors from IA Community in PEMPAL member countries, regardless of level, who want to help their organization enhance their internal quality assessment program and/or prepare for an external quality assessment.

The workshop covered following topics:
-    The quality control measures during the individual audit assignment
-    The quality assurance through preparation of annual report

This learning event intended to help participants to:
-    Understand how to apply the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) and International Standards for the professional practice of internal auditing on quality assessment review case study.
-    Develop a solid understanding of the process used to complete a periodic internal assessment or external quality assessment of an internal audit activity.  
-    Discover proven quality assessment tools and techniques.
-    Explore the recommended internal and external quality assessment approaches and identify the best approach for their own organization.

It was followed by the 17th plenary meeting (June 18 -20, 2012). 63 experts on internal audit from 25 countries of Southeastern Europe and Central Asia discussed how their organizations can enhance their internal quality assessment program and prepare for an external quality assessment. On this occasion, they also drew on the experience of CoP members to describe some good practices for the relationship between internal audit, financial inspection and external audit.

Objectives of the meeting were:
- Continue developing the COP as dynamic learning partnership, learning from each other’s experiences and with each other in developing new solutions.
- Review the Internal Audit COP working groups’ recent achievements: Internal Audit Manual, Risk Assessment Methodology, Training and Certification, Mentoring guidance, Quality Assurance guidance.
- Provide feedback and guidance to working groups: what will be the topics and activities going forward?
- Draw on the experience of COP members to describe some good practices for the relationship between internal audit, financial inspection and external audit. Learn from Hungarian system case-study.
- Draft and approve the IACOP Plenary Communiqué based on the plenary discussion and agreements reached.
- Keep the wiki as a shared memory of all the topics, activities and guidelines produced.

The working tasks were distributed among participants. There were four leadership groups each taking responsibility for one aspect of the overall event (agenda activist responsible for shared learning agenda, critical friends responsible for critically reflecting on the process, social reporters responsible for creating a shared memory of the meeting, and external messengers responsible for crafting a communiqué for external stakeholders).

Leaders of working groups on IA manual, Training & Certification (T&C) and Quality Assurance updated full plenary on work done, work methods, and on their achievements. They also reported back, consolidating and commenting on the suggestions with the purpose to get endorsement from plenary on what’s been achieved, next steps and possible new working groups.

Differences between the functions of Supreme Audit Institutions, Financial Inspection Services and Internal Audit departments were presented by the OECD / Sigma expert and representative of Albanian Supreme Audit Institution. The presentations were followed by the discussion.
With the objective to explore successes and challenges of internal audit in Hungary several presentations from hosting speakers were delivered.

Country cases of Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia were presented in the framework of external audit and inspection relationship with IA.

Both events took place in Danubius Hotel Gellért in Budapest, Hungary. 

 

16th working session on Quality Assurance:

 

17th plenary meeting:

 

Contact: Questions or requests for additional information may be addressed directly to:
 
Ms. Maja Tomšič
E-mail: maja.tomsic@cef-see.org
Tel.: +386 1 369 6194
Fax: +386 1 369 6242