Is Climate Change a Greater Risk in the Middle East than Geopolitical Risks?

 Is climate change a greater risk in the Middle East than geopolitical risks in the next three years? According to the 179 respondents to the IIA Foundation's "2025 Risk in Focus—Middle East" survey, it seems so!

Geopolitical risk in the Middle East is real and should definitely be among the top five risks on the list of emerging risks. Anyone who disagrees is out of touch with reality!"

CAEs in the region often avoid addressing what could appear to be politically sensitive issues, which is understandable given the context. However, CAEs, in our opinion, must give more serious attention to the impact of geopolitical risks on their region and organizations.

“Is AI a Potential Existential Risk?”

 Many people recognize the advantages of AI in both professional and personal realms. However, it comes with several risks, such as some of the examples outlined below. While there is broad consensus on many of the risks, few are more contentious, such as the potential existential risk as discussed in the infographic below. I’ve been keeping up with expert discussions on this topic and am still trying to form an opinion on it. Time will tell whether it is a genuine concern or just undue worry.

What do you think?

Takeaways from my 2023 ethics CPEs

 As you are aware, licensed CIA's are required to take at least two hours of training in the field of ethics. I have just completed mine and I would like to share with you some takeaways:

1. Becoming the everyday ethicist:

This session was presented by Amanda Erven. The one technique I liked about how to achieve this objective is by developing your own personal value statement and code of self-conduct! It is a great idea. I encourage internal auditors to adopt this important step towards becoming an everyday ethicist.

2. Exploring workplace honesty and ethical gray areas:

This session was presented by Christian Miller. I liked his discussion regarding the differences between an honest person and someone who exhibits honest behavior as shown below.

Finally, I came across a white paper by IIA Australia entitled "Why people do not accurately disclose their conflicts of interest". Here is a paragraph from it:

"There are three significant ways in which people withhold information about conflicts of interest:

1. People do not disclose conflicts of interest
2. People only partially disclose conflicts of interest
3. People give misleading disclosures that result in information being hidden

These are referred to in this White Paper as the sides of the ‘Conflict of Interest Bermuda Triangle’. Examining the reasons people do not make full disclosures of conflicts of interest will help us improve disclosure systems and internal controls over conflicts of interest."

Please share your takeaways from your ethics training with the group so we can raise awareness of the importance of ethics in our lives.

Internal Audit has a role to play when it comes to mental health!

 

Internal Audit has a role to play when it comes to mental health! It starts with ensuring that its own staff are enjoying good mental health.

Internal Audit can play a vital role in helping the organization promote and improve mental wellness and provide assurance on the effectiveness of the organization's policies and practices and provide insight that can help improve them.

More details are discussed is an older post:

My Thoughts: Internal Audit and Mental Health! (waelbibi.blogspot.com)

Do Internal Auditors Have Expiration Date?

 

 What do you think?

Why did you become an Internal Auditor?

Many years ago, I have prepared a presentation for training purposes aimed at new and "would be" internal auditors. The presentation title was "So, you want to be an internal auditor!". It addresses the reasons why someone would want to be an internal auditor and if he/she have what it takes to be a successful one.
I am sharing it with you today although it needs to be updated.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7099449373981327360?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Are you getting the most from the ethics mandatory hours?

 Like many of you at this time of year, I have been looking to take the mandatory two hours of ethics training to comply with the IIA cpe  requirements. During the last few years, I attended webinars that did not interest me or added real value to my knowledge. So, this year I looked harder, and I was happy to find some really good free webinars that I have enjoyed attending. In fact, I found so many good webinars and I ended attending more than the required two hours.

One of the webinars was entitled "Why good people do bad things at work" by Andy Felo. The webinar is about the relationship between the "tone at the tope" and the "tune in the middle" and its impact on culture and ethical behavior within the Organization.

Another webinar was entitled "The seven deadly ethical sins of an organization" by Amanda Erven. I have found the definition and discussion of the seven sins engaging and I particularly liked the real-life examples she provided for each sin.

Another interesting webinar discussed an import issue which is bullying and bias in the workplace. The webinar is by Francine Griesing and its title is " Not just for school children: conquering bullying and bias in the workplace". This is such an important issue that should be in the radar of internal auditors.

One last example is a webinar that discussed ethics in this era of technological advancement. It is entitled "The ethical elements of Artificial Intelligence" by Katrina Ingram. This webinar provides a brief history of AI, ethical issues surrounding data, and discusses the principles of an AI ethical framework.   

I encourage you to choose your ethical webinars carefully and make the most out of it.