Maniolas

The internal audit organization of every company is moving beyond their traditional role. Often construed as an in-house “police,” internal auditors are increasingly becoming involved in various company initiatives that go beyond compliance and encompass activities that create business value. Nowadays, the challenge for most companies is setting up an internal audit organization that has the capability and flexibility to respond to the diverse business and regulatory environment. An effective internal audit function requires a diverse set of skills by resources that many companies find difficult to source and retain – resources that are available to service providers such as the Big Four firms and where internal audit sourcing comes into play. What are the options? A white paper on internal audit sourcing written by KPMG enumerated the following forms of internal audit sourcing: – Internal hiring, wherein resources within the company are pooled and trained to become part of the internal audit organization. Internal resources are assumed to have better understanding of the company’s operations and areas that are deemed to be given audit priority. This sourcing option is often selected by companies to give their valued employees an opportunity to explore various verticals of the organization and prepare them for future management roles. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 However, management will need to invest on time and money to train internal resources to achieve the capability and flexibility in auditing new and complex areas. There is also a tendency to impair independence as internal Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ strong fundamentals will not only keep the economy afloat, but will also ensure that the recent financial market turbulence will not have any effect on the country’s credit rating, debt watchers said. Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings, which granted the country investment-grade status earlier this year, said the Philippines is in a good position to weather the sentiment-led volatility. “It will not have any impact on the Philippines’ credit rating. Our outlook for the Philippines is stable,” S&P credit analyst Agost Benard said in a phone interview yesterday. He declined to elaborate. For his part, Andrew Colquhoun, Fitch’s head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns, said the country is “well-placed” to absorb the recent sell-off driven mainly by concerns the US would reduce and eventually pullout its stimulus measures. In effect, cheap money that has been utilized to boost growth in Asia found their way back to the US on optimism interest rates would increase there. Proof of this was the plunge of the local index to its lowest level since January yesterday, to close at 5,971.05, down 3.41 percent. Colquhoun cited the large current account surplus posted by the country since 2003, allowing it to generate dollars more than enough to meet its external obligations. As of March, the current account surplus stood at $3.4 billion. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The current account – which include earnings from exports, remittances and business process outsourcing – has contributed to Read More …