Head of Internal Audit & Compliance
Darwish Holding (Retail & Distribution - FMCG, Cosmetic & Fragrances, Fashion, Electronics, etc.)
Total years of experience :19 years, 2 Months
Darwish Holding featured in Forbes Top 100 Arab Family Businesses 2023, founded in the year 1900 is a leading and prominent business house in Qatar and in GCC at large. Darwish Holding has diversified business interests across a spectrum of industries including retail and distribution of consumer goods (FMCG), Cosmetic & Fragrances, Fashion, Electronics & Home Appliance, along with Departmental stores, Real Estate and Mall & Entertainment. Featuring more than 1, 000 employees representing prominent international brands namely Rolex, Chanel, Boucheron, SONY, Bose, Bosch, BenQ, Hisense, Garnier, L’Oreal, etc.
Reporting to: Chairman (Mr. Bader Al-Darwish) and Board of Directors│ Reported by: Professional qualified Senior Auditors and Semi-qualified associates.
Responsible for independently managing the Internal Audit Function, reporting directly to the Chairman, Board of Directors, and CEO (administratively). My key responsibilities include Governance, Risk Management, Internal Audit, Compliance and Fraud Investigations primarily described as follows:
• Setting up of Corporate Governance structure including but not limited to the functioning and quality of Board of Directors, Ethical Standards, Shareholder Rights, Risk Management, Financial Transparency, various committees.
• Conducting Annual risk assessment to develop the Risk Based Internal Audit Plan based on Risk register which is developed in line with Enterprise Risk Management and COSO Framework;
• Managing the in-house Internal Audit Function independently;
• Guidance to internal audit staff in conducting Financial, Operational, Information Technology assurance assignments;
• Internal quality assurance reviews to ensure compliance to the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards);
• Review of audit work and finalization of audit reports and presenting the same to the Company’s Management (for concurrence and acceptance sign off) and to the Board and Audit Committee;
• Following up with process owners and senior management to ensure timely implementation of highlighted and agreed recommendations;
• Formulation of the Standard Operating Policies, Procedures, Authority Matrix (DOA), Code of Conduct, Fraud Prevention Policy including Whistle Blow policy and its Compliance;
• Fraud Investigation and liaise with lawyer for action (if required);
• Review of the financial planning and budgeting process along with the rolling forecast/estimates, month end closing, preparation of monthly management accounts and variance analysis;
• Lead the KPIs development process for each department. Measure organizational performance against organization’s strategy and business plans through implementation of appropriate mechanisms.
Achievements:
• Developed and implemented risk based annual audit plan;
• Value addition of AED 7.5 million per annum at Masafi (by cost saving, revenue generation opportunities and plugging financial leakages);
• Identified misappropriation of inventory amounted to AED 5.4 million and appropriate implemented controls;
• Formulated and implemented Standard Operating Policies and procedures across the Organization;
• Embedded audit module in key process to identify the triggering suspicious transactions;
• Identified management level fraud and conducted fraud awareness training at various levels;
• Instrumental in implementation of Sales Force Automation (SFA) Tool integrated with Oracle at Masafi;
• Assisted in sales smoothing by structuring detailed Sales and Operational Plan at Masafi;
• Implemented measures to control secondary/black market sales of Luxury Watches;
• Implemented measures on entire inventory write off process and its disposal;
• Implemented controls on employee discounts and yearend garage sales.
Masafi is a leading brand in drinking water segment in the UAE and well established in GCC region since its inception in 1977. Manufacturing and processing units based in the UAE and Oman which cater beverage and non-beverage products ranging from drinking water, flavored water, juices, tissues, wet wipes, etc. with an employee strength of more than 3, 250.
Also responsible for Internal Audits Department of other personal companies of The Chairman which are operating in the development and renting of real estate properties and investment in the equity and debt securities of listed and non-listed entities including Private Equity Funds through various subsidiaries.
Reporting to: Chairman (H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair), Board of Directors and Audit Committee │Reported by: Professional qualified Senior Auditors and Semi-qualified associates.
Responsible for independently managing the Internal Audit Function, reporting directly to the Chairman, Board of Directors, and CEO (administratively). My key responsibilities include Governance, Risk Management, Internal Audit, Compliance and Fraud Investigations primarily described as follows:
• Setting up of Corporate Governance structure including but not limited to the functioning and quality of Board of Directors, Ethical Standards, Shareholder Rights, Risk Management, Financial Transparency, various committees.
• Conducting Annual risk assessment to develop the Risk Based Internal Audit Plan based on Risk register which is developed in line with Enterprise Risk Management and COSO Framework;
• Managing the in-house Internal Audit Function independently;
• Guidance to internal audit staff in conducting Financial, Operational, Information Technology assurance assignments;
• Internal quality assurance reviews to ensure compliance to the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards);
• Review of audit work and finalization of audit reports and presenting the same to the Company’s Management (for concurrence and acceptance sign off) and to the Board and Audit Committee;
• Following up with process owners and senior management to ensure timely implementation of highlighted and agreed recommendations;
• Formulation of the Standard Operating Policies, Procedures, Authority Matrix (DOA), Code of Conduct, Fraud Prevention Policy including Whistle Blow policy and its Compliance;
• Fraud Investigation and liaise with lawyer for action (if required);
• Review of the financial planning and budgeting process along with the rolling forecast/estimates, month end closing, preparation of monthly management accounts and variance analysis;
• Lead the KPIs development process for each department. Measure organizational performance against organization’s strategy and business plans through implementation of appropriate mechanisms.
Achievements:
• Developed and implemented risk based annual audit plan;
• Value addition of AED 7.5 million per annum at Masafi (by cost saving, revenue generation opportunities and plugging financial leakages);
• Identified misappropriation of inventory amounted to AED 5.4 million and appropriate implemented controls;
• Formulated and implemented Standard Operating Policies and procedures across the Organization;
• Embedded audit module in key process to identify the triggering suspicious transactions;
• Identified management level fraud and conducted fraud awareness training at various levels;
• Instrumental in implementation of Sales Force Automation (SFA) Tool integrated with Oracle at Masafi;
• Assisted in sales smoothing by structuring detailed Sales and Operational Plan at Masafi;
• Implemented measures to control secondary/black market sales of Luxury Watches;
• Implemented measures on entire inventory write off process and its disposal;
• Implemented controls on employee discounts and yearend garage sales.
Responsible for the client management, job recovery, adhering to the client’s deadlines, internal and external reporting’s.
Responsible for people management, leadership, relationship building and negotiation with clients.
Auditing, Control Assessment and Financial Risk Analysis and Accounting:
• Conducted Internal and Statutory Audit (including preparing Financial statements under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and United States General Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP)) for the various sector companies of Middle East ranging from multinationals to local giants inter alias:
Responsibilities under Accounting, Auditing and Financial Risk Analysis includes but not limited to:
• Assessment of crucial processes,
• Identification of underlying risk in the processes and evaluating the controls implemented by the organization to mitigate the risk,
• Testing of the controls to ensure that controls are operating effectively over crucial business process like sales, receivable, purchase, inventory, payables, treasury, etc,
• Performing a detailed review of the operations and internal control systems in a computerized environment to identify weaknesses in the system and to give recommendations for improvement,
• Conducting operational reviews over budgeting, management reporting and projections plans of the Companies,
• Ensure completeness, existence, accuracy, valuation, presentation of income statement, balance sheet and cash flows numbers and their underlying account balances,
• Analysis of Profit and loss statement and Balance sheet with the budget and the previous period and against benchmarking and ratio analysis (which includes product wise revenue and margin analysis, administration and selling analysis and other cost comparison along with key ratios, impairment tests, inventory valuation, debtor recoverability, credit line assessments, etc),
• Assessing the accounting policies applied by the organization are in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and International Accounting Standards,
• Preparation of income statement, balance sheet, cash flows and their related schedules for Financial Statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs),
• Performing consolidation of subsidiaries with the parents and preparation of consolidated Financial Statements of the Group in accordance with the International Accounting Standards,
• Preparation of performance improvement letter (operational and financial) and Board presentation to communicate the deficiency and the recommendation to remediate those deficiencies.
Evaluating Internal Controls and Risk Assessment over Financial Reporting for Hindustan Lever Ltd. and Unilever Taiwan Ltd. as a part of Unilever SOX Assignment.
•Setting of internal controls through establishing management information system.
•Conducted Financial Due Diligence on a Pharmaceutical Company for one of the premier Financial Institution (CITI Bank N.A.).
•Conducted project appraisal for various clients to negotiate loan from financial institutions.
Advanced Accounting & Auditing, Financial Management, Data Analytics, Strategic Corporate Finance, Cost Management and Management Information & Control Systems
Information System Acquisition, Development Implementation and Auditing, IT Governance and Management, IS Operations and Business Resilience and Protection of Information Assets
Governance and Risk Management, Internal Auditing and Compliance
Fraud and Forensic Investigation, Fraud Detection, Prevention and Deterrence
Advanced Accounting & Auditing, Financial Management, Cost Management and Management Information & Control Systems
Accounts, Finance, Audit, Law
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