The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the global organization for the accountancy profession, today issued Policy Position Paper 7, Effective Governance, Risk Management, and Internal Control, to highlight good practice and the role of professional accountants in business.
Integrated and effective governance, risk management, and internal control within a robust ethical culture make an invaluable contribution to achieving sustained organizational success. At the same time, organizations often fail because of poor governance and/or ineffective and disconnected risk management and internal control.
“The recent global financial and sovereign debt crises have bought into greater focus the need for all organizations—in both the private and public sectors—to implement governance, risk management, and internal control as integrated parts of their management systems,” said IFAC CEO Ian Ball. “As the global organization for the accountancy profession, IFAC is encouraging and facilitating a better understanding of good practices in governance, risk management, and internal control, and greater global consistency in principles and guidelines to support effective implementation.”
IFAC is actively engaged in promoting relevant knowledge, experience, and learning so the profession can better support the more one million professional accountants worldwide working as employees, advisors, consultants, and self-employed owner-managers in commerce, industry, financial services, education, and the public and not-for-profit sectors. Governance, risk management, and internal controlare among the core competencies of professional accountants working in business, who play a leading and public interest role in planning, implementing, executing, evaluating, and improving these areas.
“Organizations can be confident that professional accountants are able to contribute strongly to governance, risk management, and internal control,” stated Ball. “This policy position paper, and IFAC’s supporting publications, provide leadership and guidance to the profession and will help facilitate a common view of how organizations can effectively implement governance, risk management, and internal control.”
About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 173 members and associates in 129 countries and jurisdictions, representing approximately 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.
# # #
