Muhammad Usman, ACA

I am presently working as a Assistant Manager Internal Audit at Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) which is the biggest manufacturer of Appliances and Power division products in Pakistan.

My responsibilities include;

- Provides a comprehensive, practical schedule of annual engagement coverage within general areas assigned by the head of Internal Audit Department.

- Determines areas of risk and appraises their significance in relation to operational factors of cost, schedule, and quality. Classifies engagement projects as to degree of risk and significance and as to frequency of coverage.

- Schedule projects and staff assignments so as to comply with management’s needs, within the scope of internal audit activity’s overall schedule.
- Supervises the work of staff engaged in the reviews of organizational and functional activities of different processes.

- Counsels and guides staff to see that the approved engagement objectives are met and that adequate, practical coverage is achieved.

- Identifies factors causing deficient conditions and recommends courses of action to improve the conditions, including special surveys and audits evaluating and reporting on business, financial and accounting system controls and standards.
- Review and evaluate the application controls in Oracle and providing recommendations to fill the gaps (if any).

- Performing investigation of any fraudulent activity highlighted by whistle blowers/ Speak-up assignments.

- Develop, initiate and maintain policies and procedures of the company and its business divisions

In my role as Asst. Manager Accounts and Finance, I was leading the finance and accounts function of the company.

My pertinent experience includes;
;

- Preparing strategy, business and financial plans expanding over a horizon of 5 years and providing strategic support to marketing, sales and supply chain management for planning and forecasting functions.

- Preparation of strategic and future outlook, corporate and financial reports and presentations for the Board of Directors and Executive Management.

- Responsible for preparation of statutory, corporate and special purpose financial statements and reports coupled with complex and detailed business and financial analysis.

- Responsible for comprehensive and technical financial planning, forecasting, analysis and modeling functions coupled with preparation of gap-reports and suggesting business improvements from financial, strategy and operational perspectives.

- Preparing the annual comprehensive budget for the company by taking commercial and business inputs from the Board of Directors (BoD), National Sales Manager and the concerned Head of departments and setting out individual subsidiary budgets on departmental, activity, product and project basis.


- Preparation of value-added and high quality analyses of cost, financial and business data including but not restricted to Variance Analyses, Profitability Analyses, Financial Ratio Analyses, Business Performance Analyses, Business Improvement Analyses, Analyses of Budget and Key Cost Drivers etc.

- Evaluating and reporting on business, financial and accounting system controls and standards.

- Preparation of monthly cash flow forecasts and payment plan.

- Filing of monthly sales tax return.

In my role as Advisory Senior, I was involved in execution of internal audit, risk management, SOPs development and performance improvement related engagements.

My pertinent experience includes;

- Managed internal audit, SOX, ERM, COSO, risk management, internal controls, legal and regulatory compliance, and CSAT assignments at some of the biggest manufacturing, telecommunication and financial sector companies.

- Reviewed the ERM guidelines of a fortune-500 company and checked their compliance by conducting meetings with HODs and doing walkthroughs.

- Prepared the business process documentation which includes the process flows (As-Is), risk and control matrices (RACM) test plans and mapping of RACM with CSAT for a fortune-500 manufacturing company and for a commercial bank as per the SOX directives.

- Prepared and established standard operating procedures (SOPs) manuals, risk management and internal controls frameworks for multiple EY clients.

- Conducted comprehensive review of strategy and operations of marketing and commercial division of a blue-chip and top paints and coatings company. Provided recommendations in areas relating to annual sales forecasting and budgeting, advertising and branding strategy, above/below the line activities, pricing of products and contribution margins, distribution network, credit management, claims from customers, alignment of supply chain logistics with geographical demand etc.


- Conducted multiple assignments for manufacturing companies pertaining to supply chain management functions focusing on areas relating to procurement of raw materials, defining and monitoring of inventory levels, suppliers evaluation and selection and quality control process.

- Reviewed the process of master data management (MDM) and material requirement planning (MRP) in SAP, identify and reported the gaps in the process.

- Reviewed the process of management reporting of multinational company to its parent company abroad. Reviewed the accuracy of Monthly Review of Operations (MRO) and reporting of financial data through Hyperion.

- Evaluate the change in business model of one of the biggest international EY client particularly with regards to parameters of cost reduction, security, compliance, standardization, efficiency, effectiveness and management control.

- Led a team of professional to conduct special purpose audits of biggest chemical company of the country. Performed extensive tests of controls and tests of details on contracts awarding process. Unearthed major frauds in the process and reported the same to executive management.

- Conducted special purpose audit to check compliance with CDC regulations of a blue-chip company.

- Conducted extensive verification of construction contractors’ bills worth millions of rupees before the payment is finalized by client and reported various non-compliances with agreement to the top management.

- Reviewed the fixed assets records of big textile company, finalized the coding scheme and classification of fixed assets in fixed asset register.

- Conducted audit of internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR) of one of the top commercial bank of the country according to SBP guidelines and reported various gaps at sub-process level.

- Led a team of professional to conduct independent verification of purchases made by a biggest international EY client. Conducted vendor verification, bids verification, should cost analysis and reported various inefficiencies.