The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors has welcomed the publication this week of the revised UK Corporate Governance Code, and in particular its increased focus on internal controls.

At the same time, the organisation has also called on the government to accelerate other vital aspects of the audit and corporate governance reform programme.

“It is good to see the increased focus in the revised Code on the need for companies to have a robust risk management and internal control framework,” said Anne Kiem OBE, chief executive of the CIIA. “The introduction of the internal controls’ declaration should lead to better corporate governance and internal audit functions can play a key role in providing the Board with independent assurance that the material controls have operated effectively.”

“While the previous code already referred to the role of internal audit, we believe the opportunity has been missed to strengthen the requirements. This would have gone hand in hand with strengthening the other audit, risk and internal control provisions.”

With the new code now published, the CIIA has urged the government to accelerate other vital aspects of the audit and corporate governance reform programme, including bringing forward the legislation to put the Financial Reporting Council on a statutory footing with the powers it needs to transition to the new Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority.

“It has been six years since Carillion collapsed and during this time we have seen further corporate scandals linked to audit and governance failings, so it is somewhat astonishing that the audit regulator is still without the powers it needs to do its job properly,” Kiem added.

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