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Most Recent Update: May 2010 President’s Message Fiscal Year 2011 - 7/19/2011Welcome to the Los Angeles Chapter of The Institute of Internal AuditorsDear Member, The summer solstice is upon us and before you head to the beaches, mountains, and the desert for your long awaited summer vacations we need your feedback regarding the conferences and workshops you attended (or not) in 2010/2011. We have developed and posted a link to a questionnaire to determine membership preferences regarding topics you would like to see presented this year; feedback regarding locations and venues; preferences for full day or half-day seminars; and other related topics. I invite you to take the time to complete the questionnaire so that we can determine your preferences for CPE credit and include them in our program for the coming year. Once we have compiled and analyzed all the data from the survey, we will begin identifying meeting topics and securing speakers. Please check our website for updates. As an added incentive for completing the survey, we will have two drawings during the first two meetings of the 2011/2012 program year. Each drawing will provide an opportunity to win your choice of a $100 gift certificate or a coupon that can be used toward the purchase of an IIA-LA workshop or conference. You don't need to be present to win. But there's more... if you are present at the drawing and win you will also be reimbursed for the cost of the workshop or conference in addition to receiving the $100 gift certificate or coupon for another IIA-LA workshop or conference. Sincerely, Kurtesa Clarke-Silke
President’s Message Fiscal Year 2010 Leadership Volunteers A BIG Thank You! Hello Everyone! First, I wanted to thank the volunteer leaders who actively contribute and participate in helping to deliver service to the Los Angeles Chapter members and profession. During this past year, a number of the Chapter Officers and Governors assist with improving Chapter operations, processes, and events. We hope you noticed some of the improvements we have made. Many of the same key leaders will continue to work for you during the upcoming fiscal year 2011 and planning is well underway. With all best wishes, 04-2010 – Thank You For Your Support October 2009 – Call to Show the Benefits of Internal Auditing
The more we focus on these 5 simple methods, the better our internal auditing profession will be over both the short run and long run. I encourage you to join me, our Chapter leadership, some of your fellow 900 plus members to show the benefits of internal auditing to our organizations and clients. With all best wishes, November 2009 – The Value and Benefits with IIA LA – Thanks at Thanksgiving
We are also continuing The Risk Conference Series with session 2 on Wednesday February 24, 2010 and session 3 on Thursday May 20, 2010. I also would like to draw your attention to the schedule of standard regular monthly meeting days of workshops, lunches, & conferences with much more available CPE. A few of the highlights over the next three months are:
We are also changing our location from Lawry’s in Beverly Hills to the Los Angeles Athletic Club in Downtown Los Angeles most of the time (about 8 to 9 times a year) and the Olympic Collection Banquet and Conference Center in West Los Angeles some of the time (about 3 to 4 times a year). Here is yet another reminder about the importance and value of internal auditing and our work with risk, business controls, IT controls, and good old fashion reconciliations. Here it is – the Securities & Exchange Commission Charged Madoff’s Computer Programmers. It touches on the question of how Madoff did it. Interesting reading in this 7.5 MB file at: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2009/ohara-perez-111309.pdf The Holiday Season is once again upon us including Thanksgiving. This time of year it is important for all of us to give thanks for the many great people that surround us and those people that are the most important in our lives whether close or far away. I like to touch base and give thanks to family members, friends, and professional colleagues. Also, please consider giving (time or money) to those who are less fortunate or pick your own personal worthwhile cause (medical or health, poverty, food banks, shelters, reading programs for illiteracy, etc.). And don’t forget about who helped you early in your careers. I like to take a few minutes and touch base with some of my prior mentors who without them I know my success would have been far less – it was their help, patience, generosity, and willingness to share that I am thankful for everyday. So if you have the chance, I suggest you reach out to a prior mentor and let them know what that experience meant to you and how it changed your life – especially around Thanksgiving. Better yet – take some time with a less seasoned or younger colleague and share some of your own help, patience, and generosity. You will be glad you did – and maybe one day a few years from now you might get your own call from a very thankful and more experienced professional. A little help can go a long way – in fact a little help can be a turning point in someone’s life and career. I am thankful for all the members of the IIA-LA and the internal audit profession. Be well, stay healthy, take appropriate precautions, and safe travels! Enjoy Your Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays! With all best wishes, December 2009 – Happy Holidays We look forward to having you join us at one or all of the upcoming exceptional CPE events. With all best wishes, January 2010: Perspectives on Fighting Fraud The IIA publishes their Tone at the Top newsletter which provides executive management, boards of directors, and audit committees with concise, leading-edge information on such issues as risk, internal control, governance, ethics, and the changing role of internal auditing; and guidance relative to their roles in, and responsibilities for the internal audit process. The IIA recently completed a survey of the Tone at the Top readers with an Executive Summary of results on their Views on the Internal Audit Activity at: http://www.theiia.org/download.cfm?file=63863 Question #7: What should be your internal audit activity’s role in fraud prevention and detection? To assist our members with increasing their fraud skills ultimately helping their organizations and client organizations fight fraud, we are offering some exceptional fraud training over the next 3 months. There is no substitute for great fraud training, learning lessons from prior frauds, and tools and techniques to prevent and detect fraud. For organizations, a good offense of fraud fighters can be the best defense against fraud. First, we offer The Risk Conference Series – Session 2 on February 24, 2010 which has world class fraud speakers and practitioners. The full day offers 9.0 CPE hours and at a special price of $100 for members and $120 for non-members. Second, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) usually offers their 2 day fraud training courses in selected locations several times a year which are priced at approximately $695 for members and $845 for non-members plus the cost of travel (airfare, hotel, parking, rental car, etc.). We have worked with the ACFE to bring directly to our IIA Los Angeles Chapter the best sessions of the ACFE 2 day courses condensed into a 1 day ACFE course / workshop. We are presenting the 1 day ACFE courses below
Each ACFE 1 day course offers 8.0 CPE hours and with the addition of the separate lunch program on the same day we offer a total of 9.5 CPE hours. This full day of 9.5 CPE hours includes a buffet breakfast, sit down lunch, parking, and materials. We are offering a special full day price for the 1 day ACFE course of $150 for members and $200 for non-members. Please join your fellow professional colleagues and exceptional speakers for some best in class, nuts and bolts, fraud training. The timing is perfect for you to attend each of our upcoming fraud training events and there is no better time to join forces with your colleagues on this continuing important fight against fraud in our economy, in your organizations, and client organizations. Let 2010 be the year we start to take a more serious stand against fraud. With all best wishes, February 2010: IIA-LA Branded Events The IIA Los Angeles Chapter has established a number of branded events for our Chapter members, members at large, and the internal audit profession during this fiscal year. These branded events are focused on providing thought leadership and tools and techniques on topics involving governance, risk, compliance, and internal controls for professional internal auditors including audit executive leaders, directors, managers, as well as members of audit committees and boards. Our IIA-LA all day branded events are:
The Spring Fraud Fighting Workshops in Los Angeles goal is to take a closer look at fraud prevention and detection by providing you 1 workshop in March and another workshop in April. A 1 – 2 punch event series. These are workshops to share practical approaches and best practices, tools and techniques, strategy for fraud management, so we increase the tools in our toolbox for fraud fighting for our respective organizations and clients. We look forward to seeing you at our next branded events – the first annual: The Spring Fraud Fighting Workshops in Los Angeles
For our first annual Spring Fraud Fighting Workshops in Los Angeles, we have worked with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) to bring you the best sessions of their 2 day course condensed into a 1 day workshop course for $150 members and $200 non-members. The ACFE usually offers their fraud training in 2 day courses in other locations during the year priced at $695 members $845 non-members plus travel cost (airfare, hotel, parking, rental car, etc.). ACFE Courses are taught by ACFE faculty members who are highly-rated speakers on anti-fraud topics and have years of practical and professional experience and are veterans to the ACFE Training Department. The ACFE offers some of the best instructors and courses on anti-fraud training! In closing, this 1 – 2 punch event series will help you to be a better internal auditor and it is one of the best opportunities to pick up some tools and techniques to fight fraud. If you don’t understand the many ways that fraud can occur and how to prevent and detect it, then you may miss something important in the overall fight against fraud. The last thing you want is to complete an internal audit of an area and then afterwards a fraud is found in the same area which was happening during your internal audit work of the area. Think about it! At that point, there is no excuse or explanation available to you for a recovery. Imagine this unfolding and then you try explaining why you missed the fraud. It was the sampling. It was the scope of our work. How does that actually sound to organization’s executives or audit committees? I will tell you. It sounds like you missed it! Depending on the organization this usually unfolds as a career limiting move. We all do not want that. Now, there might be some truth to the explanations – however it is the embarrassment of missing the fraud and the people in the organizations who have an expectation and perception of internal auditors and our profession. In my opinion, internal auditors should have their fraud fighting hats on regularly and missed fraud should simply not happen – especially if the internal auditors have the right tools in their fraud fighting toolbox. However, I will guarantee missed fraud will occur at some point if you do not have the right fraud fighting tools. Please join us for these exceptional workshops to fight fraud. There are many great reasons to attend including if you need a refresher course, need to sharpen or re-sharpen your fraud skills, need to have your staff increase fraud skills, need additional focus with your organizations, or simply need to pick up fraud CPE for license renewal. Thank you for your membership in the Los Angeles Chapter. With all best wishes, March 2010: Member or Ambassador, Visual Analytics – Jigsaw, and IIA-LA Branded Monthly Events There are many valuable benefits with your membership in The IIA and The IIA Los Angeles Chapter. These expand greatly when you extend your membership to become more of an Ambassador for the profession by your involvement, participation, and contributions. The characteristics of an Ambassador and their leadership skills, leading by example and action, being at the for front of change, building relationships with management and professional colleagues, speaking highly and passionately of their work and it’s cause and purpose, maintaining objectivity and independence, collaborating and cooperating, using good old fashion common sense and professional judgment on important matters, etc. We would appreciate more Ambassadors stepping forward in the IIA LA Chapter. We are looking for Ambassadors among our Chapter members to help in many available leadership roles with our Chapter. I would like to think that we have a number of members who are really Ambassadors for our profession and Chapter. Please let us know if you are an Ambassador by sending us an email with your contact details and asking how you can get involved and best help with Chapter activities and operations. Internal audit work often times involves data analysis and data analytics which can help to identify materiality, risks, control issues, patterns, problems, quantify amounts, and write reports. I came across an interesting article that described visual analytics (Jigsaw) and realized that this is something that can be most helpful for internal auditors and their organizations, companies, and clients. There are probably a number of tools that are available for analytics but really thought this idea of visual analytics, if used really well, could help you distinguish the value you add and the quality of your work from the others in your organization and company. A superb idea and approach given the state of the economy and need for internal audit to help! I am providing the links to Jigsaw which can help you with visual analytics in your internal audit work and reports. Jigsaw: Visual Analytics for Investigative Analysis Jigsaw: Visualization for Investigative Analysis – Using Jigsaw on Your Data John Stasko, Professor & Associate Chair School of Interactive Computing An important reminder, The IIA Los Angeles Chapter now has a full day branded event each month that will be provided annually for our Chapter members, members at large, and the internal audit profession.
We highly encourage you, members of your team, professional colleagues, and both centralized and decentralized personnel involved in key purchasing and contracting decisions to attend The Spring Fraud Fighting Workshops in Los Angeles on April 14 with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) presenting their course on Contract and Procurement Fraud. This is one of the most significant areas of occupational fraud based on the number of cases for most organizations. Thank you for your membership in the Los Angeles Chapter. With all best wishes, April 2010: Thank You For Your Support Thank you for your continued support! The IIA Los Angeles Chapter has just achieved Gold status under the required Chapter Achievement Program (CAP) for 2009-2010. CAP points are earned for the various activities performed by the Chapter and its members for benefit of the profession or as a service to our members. With your continued support, we will continue to attain Gold Chapter status in the many years to come. Our most recent event on April 14 on Contract and Procurement Fraud presented by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) was a huge success! We had close to 80 attendees from different industries coming together to learn about the legal elements of fraud, as well as different fraud schemes among bidders, schemes between contractors and employees, performance schemes and false claims. The event also provided an excellent avenue to network with colleagues and others in the internal audit profession. We welcome you and members of your team to come and learn from our high calibre speakers and from each other at our upcoming May 12 and May 20 events! Our May 12 event is a regular luncheon meeting with focus on Compliance and Monitoring of Credit/Debt and Loan Covenants. Our May 20 event is Session 3 in the Risk Conference Series, where we will learn from various Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) experts on framework development, effective assessments and overall success in implementing GRC. One last note: Please remember to report the CPE hours required to keep your IIA certification designations active. IIA-certified professionals whose membership or customer identification number ends with an even number are due to report this year. The deadline for reporting is May 31, 2010. Visit http://www.theiia.org/certification/enrolled-or-certified/report-continuing-education-cpe/ for additional information. Thank you for your membership in the Los Angeles Chapter and we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming May events. With all best wishes, |
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