• Adequacy of communication channels

• Appropriateness of daily operations

• Sufficiency of the number and qualification of employees performing certain tasks

CSA endeavours to address a wider range of control issues as Paul Macosz - worldwide considered as the father of CSA - puts it:

"CSA is a technique within the broad framework of internal audit, but it uses very different tools to achieve its objectives. CSA measures the fuzzy stuff that traditional audit techniques cannot: trust, morale, corporate culture. Research for Treadway and COSO has shown that these somewhat amorphous elements lie at the heart of so many control failures."

Control Self-Assessment (CSA) is a powerful governance tool helping auditors, management and other functions to examine and assess business processes and control effectiveness within the organisation. CSA involves facilitated interaction between auditors and auditees. Through the CSA process, auditees learn more about controls and their own responsibility regarding controls. They become involved in executing controls and maintaining an effective control environment. The CSA methodology is used to review key business objectives, risks involved in achieving the objectives, and internal controls designed to manage those risks. Through this process the COSO principles of...

• Control environment

• Risk assessment

• Control activities and

• Information and communication

...are assessed across the different COSO components (Efficiency and effectiveness of operations, safeguarding of assets, etc.). The monitoring activity is audited by the corporate governance auditors.

Benefits of CSA to government organizations

The following benefits can be achieved by implementing CSA within Government organizations:

Benefits to Internal Auditing

• Improves internal auditing process

• Enhances role of internal auditing

• Improves auditing staff morale

• Decreases size of audits

• More coverage with same staff

• Reduces audit time

• Better client buy-in of audit process

• Higher percentage of action plans implemented

• More realistic picture of what’s going on in the organization

• Facilitates "value-adding" concept

Benefits to CSA participants

• Increases control and risk awareness in management team

• Assists management and staff in managing risk

• Understanding their role

• Accepting their responsibilities

• Consistent approach to control

• Consensus on key objectives, risks, and controls

• Helps reach agreement on improvements to existing controls

• Develops self-assessment program for use as ongoing management tool

• Unified approach to risk management

• Better understanding of risks and controls relative to business processes

• Broader perspective of the organization

• Focuses process owners on specific issues

• Fosters better communications with those involved with a process

• Improves employee morale

• More action plans are implemented

• Issues surface that are not normally raised in an audit

• Less disruption to business process with less audit time

• Generates ideas beyond original scope

• Transfers accountability back to the manager

• Focuses responsibility for controls to all employees

• Facilitates resolution of process improvement issues

• Helps eliminate distrustful atmospheres

• Helps assess "soft" controls

Promotes organizational unity through joint problem identification and solutions.

• What is CSA?

• Definitions

• Why use CSA?

• How is it different from other audit techniques?

• Benefits and concerns regarding CSA

• When not to use CSA

How to use CSA in Government Organisations

• Management Tool : Focus on objectives

• Audit Tool : Focus on risks and controls

• Why involve government employees

Marketing and implementing CSA in thy organisation

• Gaining commitment

• Critical success factors

Unit 2: Developing skills for CSA

Facilitator skills and responsibilities

• In-house facilitators

• Experts/Outsource/Consultants

Presentation skills
Dealing with difficult personalities
Preparing for the workshop

• Identifying the audit area

• Gaining an understanding of the business

• Identifying participating employees

• Distributing pre-workshop reading

• Conducting initial interviews

• Planning resources

• Involving management

Applying facilitation skills in a practical and integrated case study and examples.

Unit 3: The workshop

Conducting the actual workshop

• Different techniques

• Setting the agenda for the workshop

• Voting technology

Comprehensive, practical case study

• Setting up the workshop

• Conducting the workshop

• Risk- and control assessment

• Voting/prioritizing actions

• Conclusion

Unit4: Collecting and reporting CSA results

Converting workshop information into a report
Identifying reporting lines
Cumulative reporting

• Internally

• Externally

• Follow-up

• Developing and maintaining a risk database

• Practical examples of reports

Participants receive detailed complimentary notes to facilitate continued learning even after the course itself has ended.

Booking and cancellation policies