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4 January 2021 Media Release : Internal  Audit Activity Pass External Quality Assurance Review (QAR) with flying colours

Media Release: Internal  Audit Activity Pass External Quality Assurance Review (QAR) with flying colours

For Immediate Release
04 January 2021

Garden Route District Municipality appointed a Service Provider to conduct an External QAR on the Internal Audit Activity in order to assess whether it conforms to the Institute of Internal Auditors’ (IIA’s) International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards, SPPIA). The review took place during the month of October 2020 and the approach included analysing responses to questionnaires, conducting interviews with various stakeholders, reviewing and analysing Internal audit activity documentation as well as evaluating the effectiveness of reporting to management and the audit and performance audit committee.

Effective 1 January 2002, the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards) require internal audit activities to have an external quality assurance review conducted at least once every five years.
According to Ms Pamela Lufele, GRDM Chief Audit Executive, “It is a great achievement for us to obtain a Generally Conform (GC) status; considering that we operate in an environment that is legislated and embedded with standards, code of ethics and professional practices. We are also amongst the few municipalities in the Western Cape who has had the external QAR conducted and obtained a GC status”.
“Hard work has paid off and it would not have been possible without persistent commitment from the Internal Audit Team,” said Lufele.

In response to the IA’s Unit achievement, Alderman Memory Booysen, Executive Mayor for GRDM said, “Their years of experience, assurance, insight and objectivity are testimony of why the internal auditors faired so well” said Alderman Memory Booysen, Executive mayor for GRDM.
The Garden Route District Municipality IA unit became fully functional in 2010 and now consists of four (4) team members; Ms Pamela Lufele, Chief Audit Executive; Ms Grace Rwayi, Senior Internal Auditor and the Internal Auditors: Ms Mariska Pieterse and Mr. Siphelele Notyhanga. Experience in years of the IA unit’s members if added together amounts to 29 years.
In celebration of the good news, the Chief Audit Executive, Ms Lufele, answered the following questions:

Q: As the Chief Audit Executive what was your preconceptions of the expected outcomes?
A: “Well, I had confidence in the quality of work we produce as well as the compliance to all the applicable professional practices. The fact that it was the first time in the history of Garden Route District Municipality to conduct such an extensive assessment, I was going to accept a Partially Conformance (PC) status but I guess our hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence paid off and we obtained the GC status.”

Q: In general what are the primary rules/ codes of conduct relating to the internal auditor profession?
A: “That would be Institute of Internal Auditors Standards and Code of Ethics (Integrity, Objectivity, Competence and Confidentiality.”

Q: Lastly any final words of Aspiration
A: “I will quote from the famous words of Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style”. Then Ms Lufele closed her speech by these encouraging words…
“This is the attitude we have as the Internal Audit team, to always strive to perform our work with precision but not forgetting to live in the moment and being the best version of ourselves.”

ENDS