UAE-IAA collaborates with Hawkamah to raise awareness of corporate governance

DUBAI-The UAE Internal Audit Association (UAE-IAA) has signed an MOU with Hawkamah The Institute For Corporate Governance,  to promote and improve corporate governance practices of public and private sector entities in the UAE, GCC and the MENA region.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will highlight Hawkamah and UAE-IAA’s collaboration on increasing awareness about the evolving role of Internal Auditors in enhancing corporate governance practices within an organisation and  collaborating on developing sound and globally integrated frameworks and practices to be implemented by companies, banks and financial institutions, family-owned enterprises (FOEs), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to improve their access to finance, increase disclosure and transparency to facilitate informed decision-making..

“It is an honour for UAE-IAA to collaborate with Hawkamah and sign this Memorandum of Understanding. We share a common goal of promoting sustainable corporate governance for the benefit of the business community. We look forward to a fruitful and lasting relationship with Hawkamah.”, said the President of UAE-IAA, Abdulqader Obaid Ali.

 Dr. Sameer Al Ansari, Acting CEO of Hawkamah said that “An effective internal audit function plays a key role in assisting the Board of directors in discharging their governance responsibilities. In today’s increasingly complex global risk and business environment, the oversight responsibilities of the Internal Audit function have gained increased attention.

 I am pleased to sign an MoU between Hawkamah and UAE-IAA, which reflects the two organisations commitment towards working together to advance the internal audit profession, increase awareness about the role of Internal auditors in implementing sound corporate governance practices within an organisation  that lead to effective compliance and monitoring, high quality financial reporting, and the establishment of sound internal control systems.”

 Under the MoU, the institutes  will develop a communication strategy and increase the training capacity of organisations, helping them to train internal auditors, investors, directors, managers and other stakeholders on implementation of good corporate governance practices.

Conferences, workshops and seminars will be organised to raise awareness of corporate governance and encourage companies to improve their governance practices. The project will include developing corporate governance codes for the companies and corporate governance implementation programmes. The first joint Program is being held on June 17,2014 at the Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai on ‘The Evolving Role of Internal Audit in Corporate Governance’.