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As pretty as a picture

'The HIAF has just held the latest in a series of highly successful annual conferences, this time at the Brandon Hall Hotel near Coventry.  The theme of the conference was 'Painting a Picture of Internal Audit', and after starting with an empty canvas on the Monday morning we had a good likeness by the time we left at 3.00 pm the next day.  Admittedly the outlines became somewhat fuzzy after the evening dinner and entertainment, but definition became clearer in most cases by the following morning.
 
Gordon Adams from HM Treasury started the event by asking us to picture an animal that represents modern internal audit.  Fortunately we had plenty of terriers and owls, but no sloths.  We also took the view that dinosaurs are more or less extinct.
 
After we had defined the model internal auditor, the Housing Corporation's Mick Warner illustrated where we are with Efficiency, and confirmed a role for internal audit in validating compliance, indicators and the financial planning process.
 
Kelsey Walker and Jane Bloodworth of conference organisers 'Just Assured' hosted, with the assistance of Deloitte & Touche voting technology, a session examining audience reaction to a series of questions about internal audit in the housing sector.  This shaded our understanding of how we feel about ourselves, and was encouragingly positive.
 
A session by Ruth Fogg helped us to view stress in ourselves and others, and was appropriately followed by leisure time, a drinks reception, dinner and quiz.
 
Next morning, Doug Hopton highlighted some fraud risks and challenges, Dr Adrian Pulham illustrating the skills required by today's auditor. 
 
After lunch, Arthur Piper drew a sketch of internal audit in the press over the last year, followed by an open panel session.  Finally, Paul Levy gave us some background information about why change programmes fail, with some handy hints about how to get things done.
 
As always, we were left with plenty to take away and think about and hopefully some of the issues raised will colour our judgement in the future.'

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