Bridgetown, Barbados, September 04, 2008 – Sound corporate governance is perhaps best exhibited in the robustness of an organisation’s Board of Directors, the Audit Committee and the internal audit function. The current global business environment has placed this activity as a top business priority as companies seek to deliver first class oversight as the business analyses its processes and organisational risks and devises solutions to maintain credibility and competitive edge in the marketplace.

FirstCaribbean International Bank has made it a business imperative to develop a professional, effective and efficient audit function that works to global audit standards and is at the heart of the business, providing strong challenge and validation of the governance, risk and control framework and assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of the key business controls.

With this in mind, the Bank and over 25 other local private and public sector companies represented by their internal audit executives, will be focussing on ways to continuously improve the audit function when the Barbados chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors holds the fifth Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Forum at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion on Friday, September 5, under the bank’s sponsorship. The theme of the forum is “Engaging the Audit Committee.”

The CAE is internal auditing's primary advocate for sound governance and effective controls. To facilitate the further development of Barbadian CAEs and currency with the latest professional & technological changes, the local Barbados Chapter of the IIA facilitates a quarterly CAE (Chief Audit Executive) Forum hosted by local CAEs. The forum provides an opportunity for CAEs to meet "behind closed doors" to discuss Internal Audit issues, network and learn about best practice in the relevant areas of risk, governance and controls.

Ms. Francina Downey, Member of the Board and member of the Audit Committee of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados, will deliver the Keynote Address on the topic, “The Role of the Internal Auditor as seen through the eyes of the Audit Committee: What does the Audit Committee expect?”

FirstCaribbean’s Chief Auditor, Jai Somaratne noted, “Internal audit must add value to the organisations in which it operates and the way to do that is by demonstrating professionalism in everything we do.  This is only possible by rigorously developing the right structure, skills, products, processes and tools and delivering assurance and consulting services based on excellence, continuous improvement and leading edge practices. We therefore expect this conference to be the driving force in advancing audit Practices across Barbados and the Caribbean region.”

The IIA, established in 1941, is the internal audit profession's global voice, recognized authority, acknowledged leader, chief advocate, and principal educator. The mission of The Institute of Internal Auditors is to provide dynamic leadership for the global profession of internal auditing.