History
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)
The Institute of Internal Auditors was founded in the United States in 1941. Currently, it brings together more than 100 000 members from 120 countries who are engaged in internal audit, management and internal control, IT audit, education, security and other areas which are related to internal audit.
IIA Department of Latvia
The association “Institute of Internal Auditors” (IAI) was established in Riga on 26th October in 1999. The main activities of IAI are related to comprehensive professional development and education of its members: development of training programmes, development of methodological guidance, organisation of courses, training and certification of auditors, preparation of information materials, and mutual exchange of current information.
The founding process of IAI was time-consuming and required a lot of enthusiasm from our members since it was a voluntary event, which was implemented without rewards.
To obtain the funding needed to ensure the functioning of the IAI, the administration of IAI needed to persuade experts to speak and lead the workshops and trainings at the time free of charge. Significant support for the initial activities of the association came from the public administration and large organizations (including, Hansabanka, LMT, SEB, Lattelecom, Latvijas komerbanku asociācija, etc.), which didnt mind if their employees spend their time and use resources of the organisation to improve the scope of internal audit at the time. As an important project and one of the grounds for IAI development was the PHARE project “Public administration reform in Latvia”, during which huge support for members was from Phil Tarling, who was the president of ECIIA and the chairman of the IIA board.
Cooperation
IAI works closely with various professional organisations around the world for instance, the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Management Account, the Institute of finance management, the Accounting Education Committee and others. Below are some facts about events which have taken place and a comparison as to how things were and how they are now.
Translation of standards and practise guidelines
The IAI ensured translation and publishing of Internal Auditors Professional Practice Standards (further - the Standards) for the first time in 2002. The translation for Standards was ensured by the members, dividing the pieces to be translated amongst themselves. The translation took place during the leisure time of the members, for instance, in evenings and weekends. The translation of Internal Auditors Professional Practice Standards to Latvian was ensured similarly in 2004. Later, the translation of Standards and practices was ensured by a translator. In 2009 the IAI carried out the editing and approval of changes to Standards, the codes of ethics and the Consultants of Practice in the Global IAI.
Certification of auditors
The first training of CIA and certification of CIA happened in 2002. The first exams took place under the British Chamber supervision, i.e. at the last moment, the examination questions were sent to them, which were printed and passed to applicants. Before the official exam members and others who were interested could pass training exam (Mock exam). Studies occurred during Saturdays since not all employers allowed their workers to use work time for learning for an unfamiliar exam. The IAI association of Latvia had to pay to get expert involvement, because it was the only way to pass CIA exam in Latvia, until the moment when Latvia got confidence from the Global Institute of Internal Auditors. During later years, IAI organized training courses which complied with the structure of CIA certificate and ensured the ability to pass CIA exams in Riga. In 2008 the exams were organised electronically. Currently, it is possible to pass a certification exam online in institutions which are accredited by the Global Institute of Internal Auditors: Baltic Computer Academy and Riga Business School. The IAI also ensures the possibility for its members to purchase exam preparation materials with significant discounts.
Cooperation with Baltic states IAI.
Cooperation with Baltic states IAI started when the first meeting was held in 2002. Later, in 2003 another meeting was held with representatives from the IAI of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, which took place in Pernava. In 2004 the meeting took place in Riga. Cooperation between the Baltic States started again in 2010 and it successfully continued till 2011. Each year members of the IAI Latvia board participate in annual IAI conferences in Estonia and Lithuania. Members of the IAI boards of Estonia and Lithuania are invited to participate in our annual conference. IAI Latvia supported the decision of IAI Lithuania to engage in the ECIIA board and the communication committee of the Global IIA. This way we quickly receive coordinated and topical information about the sector of internal audit. It provided an opportunity to influence and guide the needs and wishes of Latvia and the Baltics both in Global IIA and in ECIIA. At the beginning of 2013, the IIA of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia organised a meeting which was attended by the Chairman of the Global IIA (2012/13) Philip Tarling. During the meeting, participants not only discussed the cooperation between these institutes but also the possibility to organize trainings for auditors not only in the US but also in Europe. Later, in autumn of 2013 a round table meeting for the chairmen of the Baltic states IAI boards was organised in Latvia, which was held by the chairman of the Global IIA (2013/14) Paul Sobel.