California Association of State Auditors

Day 1 – Fraud Risk Assessment    
Referencing numerous corporate examples, and evolving authoritative guidance, the playbook for evaluating fraud risks is changing rapidly in today’s business environment. The impacts of the pandemic and revised work arrangements may be accelerating fraud risk in organizations. 
This session is targeted to all audit staff including junior and intermediate audit staff who are seeking to develop a baseline knowledge of fraud risks and common scenarios.  It will begin by highlighting the business imperative for evaluating fraud risks in public sector agencies and organizations.  Information on fraud types and classifications, the Fraud Triangle, cost of fraud, and the pervasive impact of corporate culture will be presented and discussed.  An approach and methodology to perform a Fraud Risk Assessment (FRA) will be presented and discussed which will include practical strategies to develop or recommend cost-effective controls to manage fraud risk.  Various fraud risk assessment models and frameworks will be presented.  There will be interactive exercises to stimulate learning and strategies to probe and detect common fraud schemes.  The primary objective is to help audit practitioners and leaders build confidence to have proactive discussions with Management on fraud risk management.  Other factors impacting fraud risk including ethical business practices, data governance, and regulatory prudence will be addressed.
Key learning objectives include the following:

• Fundamental understanding of fraud risks and types
• Knowledge of the organizational pressures that generate fraud schemes
• Deploy assessment techniques to measure the impact of fraud risk scenarios
• Understanding bias and its impact on audit work
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Day 2 – Tactics (and Courage) to Appraise Corporate Culture     
The imperative for internal auditors to understand and anticipate cultural risks is at an all-time high considering the level of workplace change resulting from the pandemic.  Internal audit stakeholders including regulators, are raising expectations for organizations to articulate and sustain acceptable corporate culture. There have been high profile breakdowns across numerous industry sectors and organizations are re-evaluating their approach to culture, social license, and competitive advantage. Internal audit is well positioned to determine whether organizations are identifying and addressing culture-related risks and potential hotspots. We can leverage our objectivity, business acumen, and enterprise-wide focus to assess all aspects of corporate culture.
This session will provide insights on how to assess your organization’s corporate culture and identify steps that can be taken to appraise alignment with articulated values and purpose.  The session will outline the key attributes and characteristics that define a strong and ethical culture from several perspectives. Elements of corporate culture, through the introduction of cultural artifacts, that could either encourage or suppress “acceptable” outcomes will be described. A practical model and process will be presented for internal auditors to appraise corporate culture.  It will begin with workplace diagnosis (people and practices) followed by the analysis of hard and soft data (internal and external) to formulate defensible and high-value conclusions.  Practical strategies and approaches to deliver high value insights and assessments on cultural alignment will be discussed.  There will be several interactive exercises to stimulate learning to evaluate elements of corporate behaviors and culture. 
By the end of this session, attendees should develop the ability to:

• Identify cultural elements and artifacts in their respective organizations
• Incorporate culture risk dimensions into internal audit planning and execution
• Develop strategies and apply various methods, tools, and metrics to appraise culture (e.g., standalone audits, bolt-on, analytics, agile)
• Recognize and mitigate bias and management pressures.

Key learning objectives include the following:

• Understanding of the principal elements of culture and their impact on organizational practices and performance
• Enhanced knowledge of tactics and strategies for analyzing an organization’s culture
• Increased ability to recognize personal and organizational bias

This class will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 8:30am-12:30pm.