Internal Audit Manager
Al Yamamah Steel Industries Company
Total years of experience :36 years, 2 Months
Al-Yamamah Steel Industries Company is a publicly listed company on the Saudi Stock Exchange
(Tadawul). The company manufactures and sells metal products to serve construction, electrical,
and telecommunication sectors. I joined the company as an Internal Audit Manager (Acting Head
of Internal Audit) with the following responsibilities:
• Establish policies and procedures for the internal audit function.
• Ensure consistent control activity across multiple regions.
• Lead the internal audit annual risk assessment and planning process to develop the strategic
audit plan.
• Lead the internal audit initiative by implementing action plans related to risk assessment
and annual planning.
• Identify root causes for audit findings with practical solutions, and ultimately provide value
to management.
• Manage the monitoring activities to track, follow-up, and ultimately close all open audit
findings.
• Proactively inform senior management of significant risks or exposures related to internal
controls, compliance, and/or governance functions requiring prompt attention.
• Meet regularly with the audit committee members to report the status of the internal audit’s
ongoing monitoring activities and ensure all action points are addressed in a timely manner.
• Serve as the focal point of contact on all regulatory exams and other third-party audits.
• Actively participate in executive management meetings to ensure that the internal audit
department is well-informed of key business developments that could have an impact on
audit priorities and/or plans.
• Attract, hire, and retain a team of high-performing audit professionals who possess
outstanding knowledge, experience, ethics, and integrity.
Designing and implementing comprehensive audit programs, namely conducting interviews, review of
documentation and processes, development and administration of surveys, preparation of working papers,
issue identification, review and analysis of evidence and recommendation, and finally the enforcement of
processes and procedures.
• Developing audit approach and testing strategies for assigned regional visits to ensure all key business risks
and controls are evaluated.
• Administration of risk assessments and internal controls for each Regional Internal Audit Review, by
identifying weaknesses, inefficiencies, operational issues, along with evaluating Risks and Controls and
preparing Risk and Control matrix.
• Collaborating with the other department managers (IT, Finance, Operations, etc.) on internal audit matters to
achieve company objectives, ensuring the implementation of agreed remediation plans.
• Overseeing and conducting continuous reviews on the implementation of the Regional Internal Audit
Compliance Monitoring Framework.
• Review of processes in place to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, code of conduct
and policies/procedures across the auditable entities, ensuring that any discrepancies and potential breaches
are highlighted, addressed and resolved.
Coordinating with other audit units to effectively utilize resources and manage priorities proactively.
• Review and approve all internal audit reports and deliverables and assure tasks are completed within agreed
upon time frames.
• Performing special tasks appointed by the Head of Regional Internal Audit.
• Reviewing team members’ performance, while planning for their development, and coaching.
Assisted in preparing the audit plan to assess systems and processes in the company, while collaborating with
senior managers to determine the scope of audits conducted.
• Discussed process changes and revised action plans with departments upon conclusion of audits, oversaw loop
closure for non compliant items, and submitted finalized recommendations and reports to management.
• Supported management in preparing the annual budget to ensure the completion of planned audit activities,
the allocation of financial resources and cost management of operational overhead to ensure the
implementation of the budget effectively.
• Prepared audit reports, that highlighted key findings affecting operations to management to drive
accountability and compliance levels.
• Responsible for recommending corrective action plans and providing status updates to management on
improvements achieved.
• Appointed to head the Compliance Section, leading a core team of 3. Was also responsible for administering
the team’s compliance audit development program.
• Responsible for preparing review and auditing plans for 1000 pharmacies across Saudi Arabia to ensure
compliance with Ministry of Health regulations, Nahdi Company policies, and other laws and regulations.
• Contributed to the design and preparation of the Policies & Procedures Manual for the Internal Audit
Department; updated policies (as per developments) to accommodate changes on account of change in
business cycles, economic conditions and regulatory norms.
• Ensured compliance with standard business practices, administered the code of conduct and maintained
adequate adherence to corporate governance requirements to safeguard the company assets.
Assisted in identifying and evaluating the company’s risk areas and provided input on the development of the
annual audit plan
• Accomplished the assigned internal audit projects, identified control weaknesses and effectively
communicated the results to process owners through audit and control evaluation reports
• provided key inputs to teams on successfully handling audits for various departments and ensured compliance
with policies
• Attended meetings with auditees (process owners) to communicate developments in business processes (after
receiving the audit assignment from the Internal Audit Department Manager)
• Conducted meetings with process owners to review processes in order to identify controls, document the
process, and then conduct meetings with the process owners’ supervisor to review the process in order to
validate and update the audit software with controls
• Prepared minutes of meetings for business process owners, including the mapping of the processes, validation
with the process owner and archiving the related documents to develop an understanding of the business
• Researched for best practices before initiating meetings with process owners
• Performed audit procedures, including identifying and defining issues, developing criteria, reviewing and
analyzing evidence, and documenting auditee’s processes and procedures
• Identified, developed, and documented audit issues and recommendations concerning areas under review
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