IFAC: Policy position paper on effective governance, risk management and internal control

13 December 2012

IFAC issued Policy Position Paper 7, 'Effective Governance, Risk Management and Internal Control', to highlight good practice and the role of professional accountants in business.

Integrated and effective governance, risk management, and internal control within a robust ethical culture make an invaluable contribution to achieving sustained organisational success. At the same time, organisations often fail because of poor governance and/or ineffective and disconnected risk management and internal control.

“The recent global financial and sovereign debt crises have bought into greater focus the need for all organisations—in both the private and public sectors—to implement governance, risk management and internal control as integrated parts of their management systems”, said IFAC CEO Ian Ball. “As the global organisation for the accountancy profession, IFAC is encouraging and facilitating a better understanding of good practices in governance, risk management and internal control, and greater global consistency in principles and guidelines to support effective implementation.”

IFAC is actively engaged in promoting relevant knowledge, experience and learning so the profession can better support the more than one million professional accountants worldwide working as employees, advisors, consultants and self-employed owner-managers in commerce, industry, financial services, education and the public and not-for-profit sectors. Governance, risk management and internal control are among the core competencies of professional accountants working in business, who play a leading and public interest role in planning, implementing, executing, evaluating and improving these areas. 

“Organisations can be confident that professional accountants are able to contribute strongly to governance, risk management and internal control”, stated Ball. “This policy position paper, and IFAC’s supporting publications, provide leadership and guidance to the profession and will help facilitate a common view of how organisations can effectively implement governance, risk management and internal control.”

Press release

Position paper


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