Lately I am having a change of heart. I used to think that I cannot be a full time housewife because lack of brain activity will kill me. But now, I am on the verge of resigning because of these two adorable kids waiting for me everyday as I come home from work. Maybe I just needed a break. Maybe I would just want to experience having nothing to think about but my husband and kids for a couple of months. Maybe God is telling me that my kids need my time more than the money I take home each month. I don’t know. All I know is that I would want to spend more time with my kids each day. And guess what, my husband feels the same way too… ahahah…

Risk-based audit is not an easy task. Based on ISPPIA, internal auditors, at the minimum, should evaluate the company’s significant exposure and mitigating controls. This assessment should include the integrity of operational and financial reporting, effectiveness and efficiency of operations, safeguarding of assets and compliance to laws and regulations. The process ends by making recommendations to the improvement of the company’s governance, operations and information systems.

Last April 3 and 4, I attended this so-called refresher course in Hyperion Financial Management System. It was actually a beginner’s course for me as I do not have any background knowledge of this application system. We were asked to attend this seminar because definitely it is part of the audit universe. Testing the effectiveness of this system is critical because being employed in a business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide, consolidation of financial information is vital.

The first few hours of the seminar made me realize how powerful the system is. Imagine, the unadjusted trial balance can easily be uploaded from SAP to Hyperion (that is if accounts have been matched) and the consolidated report can be generated anytime at any form management would prefer. If you would ask me why not use SAP for consolidation, the answer is simple, other subsidiaries do not have SAP. The seminar was going smoothly not until the subject-matter expert started explaining the system in detail. No problem with access, integration and other IT issues, it was the financial terms that made the blood as if drip from my nose. (nose bleed! Haha!). I was the only non-CPA in the list of attendees. This scenario reminds me again what the heck am I doing in audit? I barely passed my Accounting 1 & 2 in college. Yes I love math and I am good at it. But Accounting is something else. It is not really much on mathematics because all you have to deal with is plus/minus (debit/credit). The problem is what you put as debit may not necessarily be, given the accounting standards. I think this is the competency that I will never be (and never want to be) proficient with. The irony of it is that if I continue being an auditor, even IT auditor for that matter, I know that accounting will bug me for the rest of my life.

First training I attended this year is ‘Adding Value Using Risk-based Auditing.’ This program is awfully familiar to me as I was already trained by SGV and this has been mentioned frequently during my CIA review. So why did I take it? My boss asked me to, so what can I do?

As expected, I was bored to death as I once again encountered slides about audit standards and practice advisories (give me a break!). But thanks to most trainees who happen to be Chief Audit Executives (CAE), I just had this realization.

Four years ago I applied for an analyst position at PNOC-EDC because my batch mate in college advised me that there was an opening. After I passed the exam, I vividly remember how confused I was when the CAE’s secretary called me up to schedule an interview. At that time, who would have thought that audit department needs an engineer to fill an auditor position? But as I was assigned with diverse audit engagements which required me to meet people with varying positions from different places, observe and review unfamiliar procedures, I did not realize that 3 years of rich experience has passed. Yet questioning my audit competency never left my mind because I pursued an engineering course not accountancy. That insecurity, together with the desire to go abroad, pushed me to take the CIA exam.

A year ago, I left EDC knowing that somehow I contributed to its success of being partners with business owners. Gone are the days that auditors were viewed as policemen or ‘cops on the block.’

Now I am already a Certified Internal Auditor and planning to take the CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) in the near future.

So what is my realization then? Surprisingly (to me and I guess to those who I have worked with), I now know what I would want to end up in the future. I would want to be a Chief Audit Executive myself. Based on standards, CAE should report functionally to the Board of Directors specifically the Audit Committee and administratively to the CEO. Not bad for a position eh? Well, I’m gonna push my luck (I don’t want whammy!)…we’ll see.