IIA Canada National Conference 2023

1.1 Operational Audit – Leading Practices

03 Oct 2023
15:35 – 16:25
DAY 1 - TRACK 1 - SESSION 1

1.1 Operational Audit – Leading Practices

Level: Intermediate

All organizations should evaluate what they are doing well and where they can achieve improvements to evolve and pivot to meet ever changing requirements. In order to look to the future, organizations should look to operational audits to create value through improved performance of operations. The IIA defines Operational Auditing as “a systematic process of evaluating an organization’s effectiveness, efficiency and economy of operations under management’s control and reporting to appropriate persons the results of the evaluation along with recommendations for improvement.”
 
My presentation is directly linked to the theme of the conference of Capitalizing on our Diversity as it will discuss how Internal Audit at FortisAlberta, Canadian Pacific Rail, and other organizations that I have been involved with, have evolved their Operational Auditing programs, and what has been observed as a result of pivoting to a greater focus on operational audit.  It will also look to how Internal Audit has undertaken root cause analyses of operational issues and how Internal Audit can influence the business and operations.  I will engage the audience in a couple of survey questions aligned with the presentation material.
 
The presentation will relate directly to the theme of Capitalizing on our Diversity.  Internal Audit is a key driver of risk identification, mitigating strategies, both current, and future. How Internal Audit can then pivot to support the organization with Operational Audit will be an important factor.