Larry Harrington with officials of the Qatar chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors - Qatar.

The Institute of Internal Auditors’ core purpose is to advance the profession and its value around the world. Internal auditors will soon be universally recognised as indispensable for effective governance, risk management and control,” said vice chairman of the IIA Global Board Larry Harrington at a seminar convened by IIA Qatar at Hotel Marriott recently.
The seminar which included a talk on “the future of the internal audit profession” was jointly hosted by the IIA Qatar and Scientific Accounting Association.
Larry is also the Chief Audit Executive for Raytheon, a $25 billion defence company in the USA.
The speaker said preventive and detective controls are no longer the alpha and omega of auditing but more emphasis should be on the monitoring thereof, as that is the way auditors could help their organisations to be more effective.
“Auditing profession now receives more importance than ever before. The auditors should be critical success factor for business enterprises” said Larry.
The key reasons, he pointed out, are business has never been more global, risks complexity and velocity continue to increase and technological innovations are happening at high pace. Further, there are more demands from stakeholders, lower margin for error and less time to recover. Thus the management oversight activities and governance are imperatives for business success where internal audit plays pivotal role, added Larry. He advised auditors to move beyond financial audit to be indispensable champions in the realm of GRC (Governance/Risk/Control).
In the closing session on leadership the key idea was that leaders must be able to effectively synchronise three aspects referred to as the three C’s, connect, collaborate, and communicate. Auditors should be agents for positive change with a sense of urgency, said Harrigton.
It is almost 10 years since the IIA global top leadership visited Qatar. Harrington’s power-packed presentation uniquely combined technical aspects and mesmerising motivational messages. “The call for action was beyond skills, be a leader who transforms and drives change, exerts influence and creates legacy of leadership” said IIA Board member and co-ordinator of the meeting Sundaresan Rajeswar, a senior internal auditor in Doha.   
Doha Bank was the sponsor of the seminar. IIA Qatar senior vice president Fahad al-Marri opened the meeting and Adil M al-Hashimi presented mementos to guests. The meeting was attended by over 150 auditing professionals.