Blog: Internal Audit, COVID-19 Risks, and the Year Ahead
In his blog, IIA President and CEO Richard Chambers, CIA, QIAL, CGAP, CCSA, CRMA, shares his personal reflections and insights on the internal audit profession. Here’s an excerpt from his latest post:
As important as it was to identify emerging risks two years ago, anticipating risks has never been more critical than it is today. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the velocity of risk to an unprecedented level. For many organizations, risk assessments undertaken in 2020 have had shelf lives of only weeks or days. Each day brings new developments that directly influence the likelihood and potential impact of future events.
Consider a few of the uncertainties that organizations may face in just the fourth quarter of 2020:
- Will there be a second wave of COVID-19 infections where our organization operates?
- Will government officials and regulators relax quarantine restrictions that impact my company/industry?
- Will there be additional stimulus relief from the federal government?
- Will U.S. elections impact the equity markets?
As much uncertainty as there is in that list, remember that the fourth quarter is only days away. I believe those uncertainties will be only a drop in the bucket compared with the uncertainty of risks we face in 2021. Yet, if we are to be a source of value to our organizations, we must pull out our telescopes again and start surveying the horizon.
Read the full InternalAuditor.org blog post from IIA President and CEO Richard Chambers.
