Internal Auditors Importantly Contribute to Organization's Good Governance
Recently we successfully delivered an online course that brought together internal auditors from South East Europe to discuss their role in governance, providing assurance on the processes and structures that help public sector organizations achieve their objectives. Participants also discussed ways how to support change and innovation in public organizations. We are happy to share some reflections on the importance of effective governance in public organizations by Ms. Stasja Grkman who works at the Slovenian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning.
“Before I started a new professional career as an internal auditor about a decade ago, I had performed various operational and management tasks. So, I was particularly interested in the area of governance also in my new role. During my career, I have worked in various business and cultural environments with different business habits; however, core governance standards should apply everywhere. I keep wondering over and over how to better contribute to the Ministry where I work to apply the right mix of everything in order to improve our services, satisfy the public interest, take care of the finances given to us for management, and last but not least, to make my colleagues in the Ministry feel fun at work.
Mission impossible? Yes and no, but as I learned at this course, if you go step-by-step, things will start to move in the right direction.
I also appreciate a lot the learning resources we received at this course. I read OECD reports and I will use the ideas of soft control contributions in the new internal audit engagement that I have in the pipeline. I always like to listen to the experiences and recommendations of other internal auditors on how they approach their audit engagements. In this sense, I think that the CEF is an excellent place to share such ideas and knowledge.
It is also a wonderful place to meet new people and to see old friends again. In the Covid times, the CEF has also given me the opportunity to visit (for now virtually, of course) countries, where other participants come from. As I like to travel, I immediately googled the places where some of the participants spent their summer holidays, and marked these as my next travel destinations.”