Internal Audit Manager-Quality Assurance
Alawwal Bank (Formerly Saudi Hollandi Bank)
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :27 years, 6 أشهر
Raised the bar for internal audit activity’s conformance with IIA standards and compliance with banking regulations after establishing the quality assurance function; Authored policies and administered IA’s quality assurance improvement program; Communicated the results of quality assurance activities and made value-adding recommendations; Fostered an environment of informed decision-making by advising colleagues on emerging audit concepts and trends; Drafted a unique audit report-sharing agreement between the bank and its controlling shareholder company’s internal auditor and managed the working relationship.
• Instituted concurrent monitoring mechanisms in assurance engagements that effectively gave feedback on performance gaps while the planning, execution, and reporting stages are still ongoing.
• Helped achieve excellent audit manuals, reports, and work papers through independent quality reviews.
• Assisted in the preparation of audit activity reports, attended AC meetings, and prepared the minutes.
• Carried out critical consulting tasks upon the request of the audit committee or senior management.
• Occasionally conducted assurance engagements, investigations, or inquiries as instructed by the CAE.
Proactively assumed higher managerial roles in an unofficial capacity and led assurance audits to invigorate a sluggish engagement activity sustained at the height of a manpower crisis; Volunteered to accomplish other pending audit report-writing tasks while coping ongoing assignments; Led multiple assurance engagements unassisted; Devised an audit issue tracking mechanism that effectively alerted management on the timely implementation of agreed action plans; Advised audit management on leading internal audit practices.
• Handled audit reviews of the critical business functions of risk management, treasury, and credit.
• Highlighted structural conflicts in the organization’s hierarchy that led to the downfall of political silos.
• Minimized idle time by rationalizing the execution of audit program when leading multiple engagements.
• Went the extra mile of checking audit work papers of past audits to remedy documentation deficiencies.
• Exercised supervision over other engagement teams and mentored inexperienced auditors.
Pioneered the initial audit reviews of management units sooner than expected after the first audit plan was fast tracked to early implementation; Researched and brainstormed on modern-day audit concepts for the development of IA’s proprietary audit literature; Spearheaded the building of risk registers to promote a risk-based audit approach while the bank’s official risk matrix was still in the pipeline; Relied to perform quality reviews of audit reports after having gained admiration of excellent writing skills by peers and superiors.
• Engaged in a series of process understanding and walk-through exercises of banking operations to make sure audit programs are effectively aligned with the business activity.
• Introduced safeguards to the bank’s business processes by recommending internal controls during the reviews of a compendium of baseline policies & procedures.
• Designed a wide array of audit checklists and transaction review templates for an effective and efficient identification of control issues and deficiencies.
• Retained most of the audit findings raised in an effectively written audit report where management was quick to acknowledge and respond with corrective plan of actions.
• Steadily trained junior auditors to ensure the availability of skilled and dependable audit staff.
Headed a regional audit office and managed the optimal deployment of audit teams; Supervised at least 150 assurance engagements of branches over a 5-year period; Clustered audit visits that resulted in 67% savings on travelling costs; Helped the bank recover embezzled funds and convict fraudsters by rendering well-drafted fraud investigation reports; Avoided a potential regulatory sanction and reputational damage to the bank by alerting management of a watch-listed terrorist group’s deposit account.
• Cut down 33% of overhead expenses for initiating to perform branch audits in concurrent capacities as supervisor, team leader, and assistant in lieu of the costlier 3-member audit team.
• Rendered thorough supervisory reviews of audit reports and work papers to ensure that audit execution was adequately documented in conformity with internal auditing standards.
• Stepped up to validate management responses in advance thus reducing report-writing turnaround-time and accelerated submission of audit reports to the next level of review.
• Recognized deserving audit staff in performance appraisals and through endorsement of job promotions.
Led/participated in not less than 200 assurance engagements of branches in a 7-year stretch; Discovered and investigated a teller’s million deposit lapping scheme in response to fraud indicators; Was instrumental in the reformation of reluctant senior auditors during a transition period of process re-engineering and systems migration; Leveraged my 5-year branch banking experience in performing test of controls and transactions.
• Aligned branch audit procedures to suit with re-engineered business processes.
• Highly regarded as a powerhouse and was usually favored to handle more audit tasks than others.
• Advised branch management on effective control implementation to deter recurrence of audit findings.
• Determined branch audit ratings objectively based on the engagement results.
Final Grade Point Average (1.7++)
