Administration / Internal Audit /
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) definition is:
Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.
A detailed explanation is provided here.
The Director of Internal Audit reports administratively to the President and functionally to the Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees. See also the Lebanese American University’s organization chart.
The Internal Audit plan is designed on an assessment of risk and exposures that may affect the university. Ultimately, the objective is to provide management with information to mitigate the negative consequences associated with accomplishing the University’s objective. A variety of risk factors exist to assist in prioritizing audit areas such as dollar materiality, asset liquidity, management competence, quality of internal controls, degree of change or stability, time of last engagement, complexity.
Every year, the Director of Internal Audit submits to the Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees an audit plan. Once approved, Internal Audit consults with management to schedule the audit tasks.
The audit cycle is explained on this page.
Read Audit members’ short bios here.
University officers, staff or faculty who have reason to believe that fraud or other wrongful acts have occurred have a responsibility to report such incidents to their immediate supervisor(s).
The supervisor(s) in turn must immediately notify the Vice President concerned, the General Counsel, and the Director of Internal Audit, who will in turn notify the Vice President for Finance & Administration and the President.
If for any reason a staff or faculty member cannot report concerns to the supervisor because of suspicion by the staff or faculty member that the supervisor is involved in the fraudulent act, then the employee should report it directly to the higher in line and/or the Vice President concerned, or to the General Counsel, or the Director of Internal Audit. In this case, one of the officers who received the claim directly must immediately notify the other officers mentioned above.
For more information please read the “Fraud Policy”
Attribute Standard 1310, Quality Program Assessments reads — The internal audit activity should adopt a process to monitor and assess the overall effectiveness of the quality program. The process should include both internal and external Assessments.
1311 Internal Assessments —
Internal Assessments should include:
- Ongoing reviews of the performance of the internal audit activity; and
- Periodic reviews performed through self-assessment or by other persons within the organization with knowledge of internal auditing practices and the Standards.
1312 External Assessments — External Assessments, such as quality assurance reviews, should be conducted at least once every five years by a qualified, independent reviewer or review team from outside the organization.
Internal Audit Office is located on the fourth level of the Irwin Hall Building in Beirut Campus and in prefabricated offices adjacent to level -3 of the Science Building in Byblos Campus.
You can reach the Internal Audit Office by phone, mail, e-mail, or fax.
Phone: +961 1 786456 Ext. 1314/1480
Fax: +961-1-867098, +961-1-786449
Mail: Internal Audit Office
Lebanese American University
P.O.Box 13-5053 /S7
Beirut, Lebanon
E-mail: internal.audit@lau.edu.lb
Very confidential. The cover of each Internal Audit report includes the following statement: This report is issued to LAU Management and Board of Trustees. Circulation should be limited to the concerned parties.
This restriction prevents an indiscriminate broadcasting of reported information to people without a need to know.