CBOK: Regional Reflections: Latin America

Regional Relections: Latin America is a customized research report that provides a Latin American perspective on the indings from CBOK 2015, the largest ongoing study ofinternal audit professionals in the world. Building on the 10 imperatives for internal audit that were presented at he IIA’s 2015 International Conference, this report highlights unique concerns for Latin America and provides insights from several internal audit leaders in the region. In addition, an appendix at the end of this report gives key demographics about survey respondents from Latin America.

In many ways, internal auditors in Latin America perform well in comparison with their colleagues around the world. hey have strong relationships with stakeholders, often align well with the strategic objectives of their organizations, and have high levels of expertise in automated audit technologies.

Having their performance pegged to the expectations of stakeholders, they are well placed to satisfy their customers and create real value to the businesses in which they work. However, there are improvements to be made. Too few chief audit executives (CAEs) primarily report functionally to the boards of their organizations, a situation that can compromise their departments’ performance. Management stakeholders can have excessive inluence over the annual audit plan and how the work of internal audit is perceived. A strong relationship with these stakeholders can be a double-edged sword, causing some auditors to focus too much on compliance and not enough on mission-critical
projects.

It is perhaps not surprising that 1 out of 3 CAEs say they have had pressure put on them to alter valid audit indings, and the source of the pressure is usually the CEO. Latin America needs a larger number of boards, and those boards also need to be efective and supportive of internal audit. 

If conformance to he IIA’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards) is relatively low when compared to global averages, and the proportion of people who hold IIA certiications is equally low, change is on the way. IIA ailiate bodies are working with the region’s governments to reduce the constraints on internal audit exerted by out-of-date regulations. CAEs are educating their boards and management about the value of the Standards, and individuals spend more hours in training than almost anywhere else in the world. he region’s internal auditors are moving forward.