Firm Foundations

View from the Chartered IIA

As we approach the end of the year, it’s traditional to examine what we have achieved in the past 12 months – and explain what we plan to do in the future. 2024 has been a year of laying important foundations at the Chartered IIA. While some of this work has visible outcomes, much took place behind the scenes. All of it, however, has been aimed at putting the Chartered IIA on the secure base we will need to best support our members and the entire internal audit profession in the UK and Ireland in the years ahead.  

It has also been a year when business, investors and boards have shown how much they need professional internal audit skills: water companies are facing bankruptcy and railway services are being renationalised, and institutions from the Church of England to the Post Office and the BBC have been rocked by reputational scandals. Every type of organisation in every sector should be asking more of their internal auditors. 
 
Looking back, I’m immensely proud of what the staff team, council and many volunteers have achieved this year and I feel confident that, while we still have much to do, the huge amounts of work we have put in will pay dividends in terms of our member focus and communications, our advocacy with government and other bodies, and the ways in which we can help members to develop their careers and skills.  
 
One crucial development that will support all our objectives was the go-live of our new website. While we hope that this is more attractive and user-friendly than our previous one, this is just the front end of a far more ambitious technological transformation. We now have a comprehensive customer relationship management system, which will dramatically improve the way we can respond to member enquiries and will support all our work in future. By improving efficiency in this way, we will be able to spend more time on member engagement activities. 
 

We have also taken the opportunity to amend, improve and update the vast amount of professional guidance we have developed over the years. All the guidance now available on our website has been checked, and updated where necessary, so it is relevant and consistent with the new Standards. One of my favourite features of the new website is the search button on the main page. It works really well so I encourage you to give it a go.  

 

Change is never easy, and isn’t always smooth, but in addition to this work on our IT infrastructure we have also been working to support the implementation of the new Global Internal Audit Standards and the Code of Practice, developing our training courses and conferences and upgrading our technology will put us in a far better place to raise the profile of internal auditing for years to come. 

 

The Chartered IIA has been using every opportunity to contribute to national debates about restoring trust, and to engage with the government and regulators to promote understanding of our profession. We need them to turn to us for solutions and reassurance, just as much as we need boards, investors and customers to realise that internal audit can give them the insights they need to make crucial decisions.  

 

We also need to ensure that when they turn to internal audit, our members can rise to the challenges and provide the guidance and services they require. To this end, not only are we constantly developing the guidance and support we provide our members, but we are improving networking opportunities, so members can learn from each other, and hosting thought-leadership conferences and events where members can learn directly from experts.  

 

I am therefore delighted that this year’s major conferences in London, Scotland, Wales and Ireland attracted record numbers of attendees to learn from a wide range of impressive speakers. There is still a chance to view the Annual Conference using the on-demand package. We also celebrated the achievements of outstanding internal audit teams and internal audit leaders in our annual Audit & Risk Awards in June. It was great to see so much excellent work being done and to be able to share and publicise their success. 

 

Increased recognition 

In the public sphere, this year we have successfully campaigned for increased recognition of the role of internal audit in the revised Corporate Governance Code. We have publicly highlighted the lack of internal audit functions in several failing water companies and welcomed further guidance by the Charity Commission on the role of internal audit in the third sector. We have also urged the government to implement long-anticipated audit reforms and look forward to seeing these plans progress in the spring.   

  

Another important objective has been to sell our Clapham premises. I’m delighted to announce that we’ve sold the smaller of the two units and will continue to market the remaining one, while we seek new offices in Central London that will better meet our needs for the next stage of our development. 

 

Internal audit has never been more needed to support our organisations and enable them to survive and thrive amid complexity and uncertainty.  

 

I want to thank all our staff, council and volunteers for their incredible work this year and I also thank members for their support as we went through our digital transformation process. I look forward to the year ahead and wish all our members a very happy Christmas holiday period and a prosperous 2025. 

 

More details on our plans for 2025 will appear in my blog in January. 

Anne Kiem, CEO of the Chartered IIA. 
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