Chief Internal Auditor at Absa Bank Limited

Job Summary

Provide complex advice and support in the positioning of auditing operating models and frameworks in a broadly defined business functional strategy; enabling operating model, strategy and value chain formulation and alignment.

Overall job purpose

It is the policy of the Board of Absa Group Limited (the Board) to maintain an independent Internal Audit (IA) Function to undertake internal audit work throughout Absa Group and Subsidiary. 

The objective of IA (and therefore the purpose of the role of the CIA of any subsidiary) is:

• to provide independent, reliable, valued, insightful and timely assurance to the Board and Executive Management.
• to bring a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of governance, risk management and control processes over current, systemic and evolving risks in the context of the current and expected business environment.

Key Accountabilities

Colleague

• Own and drive personal learning to support achievement of career aspirations.
• Engage and motivate others to develop their skills/knowledge/experience to contribute to the success of IA.
• Provide constructive feedback and evaluation to team members for audit assignments at all levels in the IA function.
• Act as mentor and coach to less experienced team members and support others in developing themselves.
• Knowledge sharing with IA colleagues and peers in the Group and Business.

Company

• Appropriately escalate of key concerns to the SAC, for consideration of Control Issues of Entity Level Significance. 
• Support the SAC through appropriate preparation for, attendance at and contribution to committees (including pre-meetings). 
• Ensure that entity audit needs are appropriately considered and factored into the Entity and Group-wide annual audit planning process (and continuous auditing).
• Develop a risk based audit plan for the entity, which includes all Regulator required coverage and appropriate coverage as requested by the SAC Chairman and present the resulting proposed entity audit plan to local management for discussion, and then to the entity SAC Chairman and Committee members for approval; be responsible for incorporating any supplements to the plan, as required by the risk based audit plan of the wider Absa Group, and communicating these to the Chairman and the SAC members.
• Defining the risk profile for the business area and using this to define and manage the audit plan.  
• Guiding, reviewing and approving the work carried out on audit assignments in order to ensure that the scope of the work is appropriate, that risks and controls are correctly identified and assessed and that the assignments are carried out in accordance with the IA Methodology, IA policies, professional standards, budgets and timetables. 
• Contribute to clear and insightful committee reporting, audit reporting and propose pragmatic remediation actions, relevant to the issues raised by IA.
• Bring to the attention of the relevant IA Portfolio Head and Country Executive Management control and risk management issues, weaknesses or irregularities of material significance in the existence of application of controls.
• Strive to empower others to bring efficiency to audit processes.
• Build a deep understanding of the strategy of each business areas of the organisation responsible for which may impact the audit plan, including social/economic/technological trends in all client and customer groups.
• Understand client/customer needs to be able to adapt, where appropriate.
• Oversee effective and efficient use of the team’s resources and budget.
• Play a proactive role in supporting the definition of risk profiles, work effectively with colleagues across IA to ensure the IA audit plan maximise resources.
• Continually build long-term, quality and trusted relationships with a wide network of colleagues and external partners.
• Produce concise and insightful commentary and information for IA wide reporting, e.g.  Group Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC)/SAC/ERC.
• Drive the position and brand of IA within Absa through senior level interactions and Audit Committees and relevant Risk and Control fora.
• Lead discussions with Country and Business Management regarding audit observations and issues, consulting with IA PHs where applicable.
• Assign audit and line management responsibilities, direction and guidance to direct reports while maintaining an in-depth knowledge of activities in each area.
• Deliver a view on the effectiveness and adequacy of risk management and controls to the relevant Managing Director (MD) and Executive Management (Country), notably through contributions to committee reporting and audit reports, and proposing mitigating actions.
• Produce commentary and information for IA-wide reporting, e.g. to the GACC (and any other relevant Country and Absa Group Board sub-committees). 
• Reporting to local SAC or other relevant legal entity Board sub-committees.
• Support reporting to GACC and SACs for Business Units, Clusters, Functions and geographies, as required.
• Make decisions based on a broad range of factors, with Absa values at the heart. • Set the standard for excellent reporting standards  

Customer/Client 

• Liaise effectively and have timely interactions with key local regulator/s in accordance with the IA Contact with Regulators policy.
• Co-ordinate with the Committee Secretary to offer technical support and guidance to help highlight to Group any instances where the needs of the committee are not being appropriately met.
• Bringing to the attention of the relevant MD and executive management control and risk management issues, weaknesses or irregularities of material significance in the existence or application of controls.
• Balance entity expectations of IA strategy and annual audit plans. 

Citizenship

• Support citizenship agenda across IA to contribute positively to the communities we operate in.
• Apply citizenship lens when making business critical decisions.

Essential experience:

• Adherence to specific requirements of the local regulator (e.g. national, resident, qualified accountant, etc.). 
• Working knowledge of control, regulatory and risk issues and demonstrated practical application of this knowledge. 
• Subject matter expert in their field. 
• Demonstrate deep business and key driver understanding, as required for the role
• Demonstrated deep understanding of the operations, risk management, finance and product control activities relevant to their roles. 
• Extensive experience of developing and maintaining relationships with executive management.
• Proven ability to maintain strong peer relationships with senior executive management and are considered by the SAC Chairman and Country MD, able to operate at the ExCo level, whilst maintaining IAs independence. 
• Able to maintain a sensitive approach, balance entity expectations of Internal Audit with IA strategy and annual audit plans. 
• Track record of success/high performance in a large, matrix organisation.
• Evidence of driving change/leading business initiatives/contributing to team and function strategy.
• Demonstrate strong oral and written communication in both English and the key language(s) spoken across the entity and within the relevant Regulatory bodies.
• Relevant professional qualifications (e.g. CIA, MIIA, ACCA, CISA, for audit roles; technical qualification for specialist risk team roles; and graduate degree for all)

Essential Competencies: 

• Be able to demonstrate the Absa values and behaviours:
• Drive high performance to achieve sustainable results.
• We are obsessed with the customer.
• Our people are our strength.
• We have an African heartbeat.

Preferred experience: 

• Financial services industry knowledge. 
• Knowledge about new and emerging financial products and services.
• International experience.