Head of Internal Audit Department Full-Time

Premier Human Capital Mozambique is recruiting for its client, a bank, Head of Internal Audit Department, to be based in Maputo.

Job Purpose

To provide reliable, valued assurance to the Board and Executive Management over the effectiveness of risk management, controls and governance processes, mitigating potential risks and in so doing enhancing the controls culture within the company.

The core responsibility of the Head of Internal Audit Department is the overall management of the IA function within company in accordance with the Code of Ethics and the Standards of Conduct issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors and in line with the Company Internal Audit Charter, which makes part of the Internal Audit Manual, approved by the Company Audit Committee.

Qualifications/ Experience and other requirements specific to the role

Essential

• 5+ years experience in internal/ external audit or commensurate experience in a major financial institution;
• Experience in working as part of a team.
• Relevant qualification: CA (SA), CIA or international equivalents, or relevant tertiary level vocational qualifications.
• Experience in risk based auditing or risk/control activities.

Preferred

• Experience in supervision and audit management.

Knowledge and Expertise

Essential

• Understanding of the control, regulatory and risk issues in the company and able to demonstrate application of the knowledge;
• Displays familiarity and knowledge of auditing standards, procedures, methodologies and techniques required in performing audit work;
• Awareness of company functional units and related activity and its key drivers;
• Awareness of financial, regulatory, reputational risks facing company functional units, both from strategic and operational viewpoints;
• Awareness of relevant regulatory environment and current regulatory issues, in particular commercial code and the Mozambique Central Bank regulations applicable to the banking industry;
• Awareness of the risk factors for all company products and services.

Preferred

• Direct practical experience in risk-based audit methodologies and computer aided techniques.

Technical Skills

Risk, Control and Audit Expertise

• Identify risks and controls and develop an appropriate audit approach;
• Analyse issues into constituent elements and identify root causes and wider implications and ensure that the audit scope reflects any wider implications;
• Identify appropriate recommendations and deliverables;
• Produce clear succinct documentation linking transparently from risk to control testing;
• Adequately challenge and question the business.

Industry Specific

• Keep abreast with the auditing best practices, standards and methodologies of the banking industry;
• Express technical information logically and concisely in a way that will facilitate learning and development in company Internal Audit;
• Seeks out and learns from internal and external best practice information.

Delivery to Standard

• Manage time, resource and budget effectively, consistently delivering within timescales and look for ways to improve upon this;
• Produce quality outputs in accordance with agreed audit deadlines;
• Complete follow up of issues including status report, verification and chasing up of outstanding issues.

Stakeholder Management

• Finalise allocated work and identified issues promptly with auditees, completing audit assignments in a timely manner;
• Build effective relationships with auditees;
• Manage senior and/or challenging auditees obtaining buy-in, trust and co-operation;
• Keep stakeholders and company Internal Audit management up-to-date with the progress of the audit.

Management & Leadership

• Effectively and appropriately manage workload, prioritising as appropriate;
• Work effectively in a team;
• Communicate clearly and efficiently across team;
• Build effective relationships with peers and subordinates and superiors;
• Work collaboratively across functions.

Accountability

• Submit an annual risk based audit plan for approval to the Audit Committee;
• Report significant risks and other relevant issues relating to the process for controlling the activities of the Bank, including potential improvements to those processes;
• Provide information quarterly on the status and results of audits as per the approved annual audit plan and on the sufficiency of departmental resources;
• Coordinate with and provide oversight of other control and monitoring functions (risk management, compliance, security, legal, ethics, environmental, external audit, etc.).

Responsibility

• Develop a flexible annual audit plan using appropriate risk based methodology including any risks or control inadequacies identified by management, and submit the plan to the audit committee for review and approval; The Audit Plan is to be continuously updated to ensure it remains consistent with the changing risk profile of the company;
• Implement and execute the annual audit plan, including, as appropriate, special tasks or projects requested by the audit committee and management;
• Providing period reports to the company Audit Committee and management summarising the status of the Audit Plan, the results of the audit activities, details of significant issues identified and the sufficiency of department resources of appropriate skills, experience and expertise to discharge the Audit Plan;
• Follow up and report on corrective action implemented by management resulting from internal audit findings raised;
• Maintain a professional audit staff with sufficient knowledge, skills, experience and professional accreditations to meet the requirements of the company Internal Audit charter;
• Establish a quality assurance program which assures the quality of the internal audit activities;
• Performing reviews on work performed by the Audit Manager and/or audit team;
• Issue clear and concise reports which include the scope and objectives, analysis of findings, recommendations for corrective action and a general assessment of the activity reviewed, reports to the audit committee and management summarising results of audit activities;
• Keep the audit committee informed of emerging trends and successful practices in internal auditing;
• Consider the scope of work of the external auditors and regulators, as appropriate, for the purpose of providing optimal audit coverage to the organisation and to minimise duplicated audit efforts;
• Allocate resources in accordance with the audit plan and audited business unit risk profile;
• Ensure effective and efficient use of these resources in accordance with approved budgets.

Critical issues for success

Financial Perspective

•  Recommend controls and procedures to mitigate risks and potential losses.

Customer Perspective

• Relationship building with auditees;
• Constructive collaboration;
• Becoming acknowledged as a reliable contact for Internal Audit issues within the company.

Internal Process Perspective

•  Produce quality outputs, effectively and appropriately managing workload, prioritizing as appropriate. (take responsibility for the quality of our work);
• Supporting the team in the development of audit capability in new and complex areas.

Learning Perspective

• Improving technical knowledge and managerial skills through self-learning or training;
• Knowledge sharing with Group Internal audit and company colleagues and peers in the business.