International Internal Auditing Standards stipulate that each internal audit department must put in place a quality assurance and improvement program covering all aspects of internal audit and allowing continuous monitoring of its effectiveness. This program includes carrying out internal and external evaluations.

Among the external evaluations required by Standard 1312, the Certification, which is renewed every three years, guarantees, for the General Management and the other stakeholders of the organization, the sustainability of the professionalism of the internal audit service.

It constitutes a commitment and an assurance through a professional external evaluation for more conformity, performance and legitimacy of the internal audit.

In this context, IIA-MAROC strengthened its partnership with IFACI Certification to develop the Certification activity of Internal Audit Directorates and Departments in Morocco and share experiences in this area.

Officially recognized and promoted by the International Institute of Internal Audit (IIA) and the European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Audit (ECIIA), IFACI Certification issues a label sought by management bodies for the assurance given on the function internal audit, a key component of their organization’s internal control system.

Benefits and added value of Certification

Entity Certification provides reasonable assurance that an internal audit department focuses on areas of major importance to its organization, ensures that the quality of its activities is optimized, and responds to the fundamental concerns of senior management.

The interest in this Certification lies for many reasons; among these are often mentioned its pragmatic character, its reasonable cost, a realistic benchmark source, an adaptability factor, its exemplary testimony and its universality.

QUALITY CERTIFICATION

The Certification of Internal Audit Departments is a process initiated, at the request of the member Internal Audit Directors, to carry out the external assessment required by Standard 1300, according to a high added value approach.

Quality Certification constitutes a quality and performance label issued to internal audit departments which apply the twenty-five proven and concrete requirements of the Professional Internal Audit Standards (RPAI).

This Reference, resulting from the International Standards for the professional practice of internal auditing of the IIA, presents the prerequisites and forms the common core of our profession, with the objective of a practice carried out in the rules of the art.

The RPAI, presented in the diagram above, is structured into 6 Pillars:

Positioning
Planning and Steering
Assessment Program Governance Risks Control
Professionalism
Performance Quality
Audit process

It is made up of twenty-five General Requirements broken down into one hundred  Detailed Requirements.

Objectives of Quality Certification

  • Give a strong and visible sign to the Organization’s stakeholders of the rigor with which its risk management and internal control processes are
  • Affirm the capacity of internal audit to inform managerial decisions in high-stakes areas, and to support the Organization’s innovative
  • Strengthen the stature and visibility of internal audit within the Organization, through recognition of its value certified by an independent
  • Sustain, improve and standardize the organization and practices of an experienced audit department, or reinforce the rise of a recent
  • Federate an audit team around a dynamic and demanding project, making it possible to attract, train and retain the best

Benefits of Quality Certification

Quality Certification is adopted by internal audit departments of all sizes and configurations due to its universality.

It takes the form of a certification audit and annual follow-up audits, in order to meet the commitment to continuous improvement of the internal audit departments.

The three-year IFACI Certification audit model:

  • accelerates the progress of internal audit departments;
  • encourages the rapid and optimal implementation of the internal audit’s own action plans and makes it possible to monitor the improvements deployed;
  • ensures that the auditors’ vigilance is maintained and prevents any possible deviation;
  • enables the pro-active integration of best audit practices;
  • keeps alert on changes in the internal and external environment of the organization;
  • leads to taking into account the vision and evolving needs of

Have received the Quality Certification label in Morocco: Maroc Télécom, CNRA / RCAR MAROC, CAISSE DE DEPOSIT ET DE GESTION MAROC, Crédit Populaire du Maroc, Holding Al Omrane…

For more information on the quality certification process, visit this page :

https://www.ifaci-certification.com/fr/ifaci-certification/certification-qualite

MATURITY ASSESSMENT

The Maturity Assessment transforms Internal Audit into an actor of innovation, a vector of precursor concepts and forward-looking practices, for a demand for organizational, technological and methodological breakthrough.

Objectives of the Maturity Assessment

  • Regularly reinventing the range of Internal Audit services to fully meet the evolving requirements of stakeholders;
  • Deploy unconventional critical thinking and action outside the box;
  • To assert itself as a force for proposal and action in terms of governance, risk management and internal control;
  • Accelerate the pace of internal audit transformation in a turbulent environment;
  • Build a high level human and technological audit

In what context should a maturity assessment be conducted?

  • Change of general management / Organizational transformation program
  • Regulatory changes / Modifications of the economic model
  • Obsolescence of audit methodology / Material deficiencies or weaknesses in internal control
  • Succession of the internal audit director / Change of skills model or recruitment

For more information on how the Maturity Assessment works, visit this page: https://www.ifaci-certification.com/fr/ifaci-certification/evaluation-maturite

 

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

“Who wants to improve must be measured, who wants to be the best must compare”.

Performance Assessment allows Internal Audit to conduct a process of research, comparative analysis, adaptation and implementation of fluid and efficient practices.

Objectives of the Performance Assessment

  • Generate higher quality of service expectations
  • Revisit the routine flow of key processes
  • Review the allocation of overstretched audit resources
  • Control irregular audit cycle times
  • Ensure better ‘just in time’ reports
  • Optimize the flexibility and versatility of internal auditors

In what context should a performance evaluation be conducted?

  • Uncontrolled budget overruns
  • Work overload which has become the ordinary norm, limiting hindsight
  • Regular dissatisfaction from third parties, implicit or explicit
  • Recurring publications of late reports
  • Declining quality with increased supervision

A structured and pragmatic Performance benchmark …

For more information on the Performance Evaluation process, visit this page:

https://www.ifaci-certification.com/fr/ifaci-certification/evaluation-performance