The Gardener of Governance: A Call to Action for Effective Internal Auditing

About Barrie EnslinRainer Lenz

Dr. Rainer Lenz Corporate Audit and Financial Expert University Lecturer and MentorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainerlenz/Google Scholar: https://lnkd.in/euwxX5yZPositive high energy and hands-on leader. Finance and corporate audit professional with 30+ years of international experience as Regional/Divisional CFO and Chief Audit Executive in global organizations. Since 2007 Chief Internal Auditor with 300+ assignments in 50+ countries. PhD in Economics and Management Science from the Louvain School of Management in Belgium. Teaching Governance and Internal Auditing at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany). Awardee (5) as Global Internal Audit Thought Leader (by Richard Chambers). Winner of the Global IIAs 2023 Bradford Cadmus Memorial Award. Author of a series of articles in peer reviewed journals.Barrie describes Rainer as Passionate and energetic freely sharing his knowledge of and insights into the internal audit profession - a wild thinker provocative and he continuously challenges the status quo which is the hallmark of a true thought leader. He was the first internal auditor I encountered who has these qualities.Barrie Enslin Founder Managing Director Pro Optima Audit Services (Pty) Ltd (Pro Optima)Bachelor of Accounting Science (North-West University Potchefstroom South Africa) - 1984Certified Internal Auditor (TheIIA) 1993https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrie-enslin-6934621b/benslin@prooptima.co.zaBarrie has five years of accounting and 35 years of internal audit experience both in South Africa and internationally. He identified the need for operational audits in the mining industry and decided in 1997 to start Pro Optima. Five of the eight biggest mining companies in South Africa now count under Pro Optimas clients. Services provided include internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing second line assurance services business process analysis and other consulting work. Pro Optima has contributed over 2.5 billion South African Rands (ZAR) i.e. ±USD 170 million (considering exchange rate fluctuations) in quantified value added to its clients with approximately 40% of its projects showing significant quantified value adding mostly recoupment and prevention of overpayments to vendors and institutions reduced pricing curbing of wasteful spending and improved efficiencies.Rainer describes Barrie as follows: The Pro Optima success story is attributable to the team leveraging on the often-unexploited power of internal auditing. Barrie is pragmatic does not stick to the script and aspires to seek a fine and healthy balance between a systematic approach and the freedom to be creative. I believe Pro Optimas unorthodox approach is key in providing the much-needed value adding services to its clients. Rainer and Barrie met first at the ECIIA 2019 conference in Luxemburg. Rainer was speaking about WRAPS - How to make better decisions. The duo soon realized their views on internal auditing were very similar and identified the need for practical guidelines to effective internal auditing which they started with in January 2024. While writing this book it became even clearer how similar their thinking is. Although they did not agree beforehand about any of the specific content their contributions dovetail superbly.