23 April 2020 
Nkechi Ijeomah, CHEIA Administrator
Message from the Chair
Dear All,
It seems months rather than weeks since I wrote the introduction to the last regular Update in March, in the last few days of working on campus. My own transitions to date have been easy compared with the difficulties and stresses faced by some both personally and professionally, so I’m trying not to moan, and stay optimistic!
Since the start of lockdown, CHEIA Heads of Audit have been having a weekly discussion on how we are all getting on during lockdown. I hope you’ve all found this a good way to discuss your concerns and share ideas about how your internal audit service is responding to the challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as keeping in touch with your CHEIA colleagues.
Please do look after yourselves and stay safe and well.
Juliet Simpson, Chair of CHEIA 2019/20
Head of Internal Audit, Newcastle University
juliet.simpson@newcastle.ac.uk
CHEIA Annual Conference September 2020 – Now Cancelled
For the first time since CHEIA began, our Annual Conference will not be taking place this September. As the Chair explained in an email at the end of March, given the uncertainty about the duration of the Covid-19 outbreak and of social distancing requirements, it was with great disappointment that the CHEIA Executive took the decision to cancel all planned physical networking activities until further notice.
Planning and preparation for our annual conference takes place many months in advance of the event and by this April we should have been inviting you to book your places. As the conference is the biggest event in our networking calendar and very important for CHEIA’s financial viability, this is a huge disappointment, but we hope you will join us at Aston in September 2021 (08 to 10th) and help us make that our biggest and best one yet!
Covid-19 Fora
As mentioned above, CHEIA Heads of Audit have been having a weekly discussion on how we are all getting on during lockdown. If you’ve not already done so, please join us on Thursdays via Teams at 11.00. The notes from each of the meetings are available on the CHEIA Discussion boards.
The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors has also been holding cross-sector weekly discussions, with Juliet Simpson representing CHEIA and HE internal audit. The notes from these meetings are available at:
https://www.iia.org.uk/covid-19-hub/heads-of-internal-audit-forum/
Please do look at the other material made available by the CIIA in their Covid-19 Hub:
https://www.iia.org.uk/covid-19-hub/
CHEIA Regional Events and Bitesize Sessions
Our regional events for May and June 2020 will also no longer go ahead. Instead, over the next few months we will be running a number of virtual ‘bitesize’ events as a way of continuing to support you and your colleagues in your work. The first of these will take place as follows:
Topic: Internal Audit’s role during and after the pandemic
Presenters: Derek Jamieson, CIIA Regional Director, Scotland and Liz Sandwith, CIIA Chief Professional Practice Advisor.
Date: Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Time: 11 am
Please register by Friday, 24 April on the CHEIA website if you wish to take part.
Please be aware that your email address will be forwarded to Derek Jamieson and will be used to give you the link to the session, which is likely to be via Zoom. If you are unable to join via your usual work device due to any corporate restrictions on the use of Zoom, you can forward the email to your personal device (phone, laptop, PC or tablet) and join from there.
Quality Assurance 2020
Members of the Executive (with special thanks to David Williamson) have done a considerable amount of work to review the CHEIA Quality Assurance Tool to make sure it reflects the CIIA’s International Professional Practices Framework and to rebuild the macros to generate the ‘Spider’ graphs which gave the tool its original nickname. We hope to launch the new version soon. The CHEIA Quality Assurance Tool was developed to support the quality assessments required by IIA standards: it can be used as a self-assessment to meet the internal quality review requirements or used for a peer-review to meet the external quality review requirements.
As always, we would encourage you to participate in either a self-assessment or peer-review over the spring/summer months and will facilitate the peer-review groupings; an invitation to sign-up will be emailed soon.
We are planning for this year’s peer-reviews to take place virtually, which offers the opportunity to participate with IA providers located in other regions, rather than your geographical neighbours.
The New CHEIA Website is almost here
We are working with PHES and Derventio to migrate the CHEIA website www.cheia.ac.uk to the PHES platform. This will upgrade our website, offer more functionality and be more user friendly. We will keep you posted on its progress but you can have a look at www.phes.ac.uk for some idea of what the websites of the other special interest organisations within PHES and what the new website could look like.
The CHEIA Award for Impact and Excellence in Internal Auditing
You could be the winner of the very first CHEIA Award for Impact and Excellence in Internal Auditing. Watch out for further information about the criteria for entry and the closing date.
Sector and Other News
You may already be aware that Universities UK ‘is coordinating national efforts to respond to many of the challenges facing universities including student and staff health and welfare, admissions issues, and the longer-term impact on universities.’ Follow this link for more
https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/covid19/Pages/default.aspx
Courses from PHES
There are free courses available on the BUFDG website https://www.bufdg.ac.uk/learning/e-learning/. But you require a BUFDG website account to access them. If you do not have an account and you are a member of staff from one of BUFDG member institutions, there are options on how you can access the courses on the link provided. The e-learning competition (information was circulated via JISCMAIL on 6 April) is on until 31st May and there are prizes for those who complete the most modules.
Auditor Spotlight
(our regular getting to know our members spot!)
Introducing Lisa Carroll, Senior Auditor, University of Strathclyde
1. Why did you become an internal auditor?
I was working as an external auditor for a large accountancy firm, primarily focused on public sector clients. One week I was asked to cover for a sick colleague, undertaking an internal audit review of the Glasgow School of Art. Instead of the usual sitting in a windowless room analysing spreadsheets, I spent my time exploring the stunning Rennie Mackintosh building, appraising extraordinary art projects and interviewing really interesting staff (while quickly trying to get up to speed on all things internal audit!). By the end of the two weeks, the report seemed to be gratefully received and my recommendations were duly put into action. It was a much more rewarding work experience – I felt like I was adding value. Shortly afterwards, I took up a job at the Scottish economic development agency as an internal auditor, and now work at Strathclyde. My job is varied, challenging and unpredictable – and almost every week I get out and about, meeting new people.
2. What is your favourite CHEIA memory?
Julian’s velvet suits. They brightened up every group photo.
3. What are your hobbies/interests outside of audit?
Exploring new places and trying to keep in touch with old friends I have met along the way – preferably combining the two.
4. What do you wish you knew more about?
Science. So that I could begin to comprehend an academic explaining their latest nanotechnological research to me, …..or at least answer my children’s questions without resorting to Google.
5. What’s your favourite food and drink?
I like all kinds of food (except tripe) and drink (except whisky – sorry, I know that’s sacrilege as a Scot!)
6. Where is the best place you’ve visited and where would you most like to go?
My family and I have done house exchanges every summer for years and, as a result, visited some amazing places. Our favourite to date was Sonoma, Northern California – hiking through the Redwood forest in the morning, visiting a vineyard in the afternoon and catching a baseball game in the balmy Californian evening. Antarctica is on our bucketlist….probably not house exchanging though.
Contact CHEIA Administrator
contact@cheia.ac.uk
