Organisations urged not to fear Auditors

Vice President of the Institute of Internal Auditors Botswana (IIAB) Ernest Kelapile has pleaded with organisations to invite them to come and audit them as well as to seek advice from them.

“It is unfortunate that most organisations still have the perception that auditors are monstrous to an extent that they are afraid of auditors,” said Kelapile. But quite contrarily, auditors act as watchdogs of organisations by ensuring that governance standards and principles are adhered to. It’s not all the time that auditors come on a fault-finding mission, but sometimes visit organisations to gauge progress.

Speaking at the IIAB Awareness Day, Mayor of Francistown Sylvia Muzila urged internal audit practitioners to also perform proactive fraud detection to discourage malpractices before they occur in a company. Muzila advised auditors to produce fair, balanced and understandable reports and accounts as some skeptics may complain that financial disclosures are cumbersome due to length and amount of information required to be disclosed. She said that internal audit is crucial in areas such as compensation, board performance and organisational performance.