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AfroCentric INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2016
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Governance and sustainability
The vision of Internal Audit is to add value on a proactive,
objective and independent basis and assist with the
achievement of the Group’s business strategy and
objectives while upholding the core values of mutual
respect, accountability, empowerment, integrity, innovation,
accessibility, commitment, efficiency, proactivity and
professionalism. According to its core values, AfroCentric’s
internal audit endeavours to comply with the highest
professional standards of integrity, sound practice and
transparency to build trust and maintain the interests of client
schemes and shareholders at the forefront of our corporate
agenda.
Internal Audit assists AfroCentric to accomplish its strategic
objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach
to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk
management, control, and governance processes. This is
achieved by managing the significant risk exposures and
control issues, corporate governance issues and other
matters. These detailed reports of specific results and their
action plans are available on request from the Audit and
Risk Committee. Detailed reports on all audit projects are
distributed to Executive management. Management action
plans to audit findings are communicated in detailed form.
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) standards require that
an external quality assessment be conducted on the Internal
Audit Activity of an entity at least every five years. Afrocentric
Internal audit has been subjected to two Independent
external quality assessment reviews in the year 2011 and
recently in August 2016. The overall rating as assessed by
the IIA was “Generally Conforms” in both years and thus
the function is entitled to use the “in accordance with the
Standards” statement in their internal audit reports. IAA aims
to meet and exceed the IIA Standards and Code of Ethics.
INFORMATION AND SECURITY GOVERNANCE
IT Governance is defined in King III as the “effective and
efficient management of IT resources to facilitate the
achievement of corporate objectives”. It exists to inform and
align decision-making for IT planning, policy and operations
to meet business objectives and to ensure that risks are
managed appropriately.
The AfroCentric Group applies the principles of King III in its
governance frameworks, as far as it is appropriate, and also
has regard to the requirements of Cobit, ISO 27001, ITIL and
ISO 38500:2015 in the governance of IT.
The Group adopted a formal IT Governance Framework,
which aims to provide standardisation of IT practices across
the organisation and formalise the good governance
requirements stipulated in Chapter 5 of King III.
The main objectives of IT Governance are to:
Enable the strategic and tactical alignment of IT and
business
Understand the value and impact of IT investments
Identify opportunities for improved IT utilisation
Support visible and transparent decision-making
Establish and sustain effective IT policies
Establish performance measurements
Identify and mitigate risks
Satisfy regulatory and formal compliance requirements
IT Governance is overseen by the IT Steering Committee,
comprising of representatives from Business and IT, and
ultimately reports to the Audit and Risk Committees of the
Board. The following areas are regularly reported on to the IT
Steering Committee:
IT security
IT and business applications
IT architecture
Computer operations and helpdesk
Network infrastructure
Project management office
Disaster recovery and business continuity
IT procurement and IT asset management
Change management
IT risks
GOVERNANCE OUTLOOK
Failures in corporate governance proved to be a real threat
to the sustainability of many organisations globally. The
standards of corporate governance are changing rapidly
in response to changing events in a global economy that
is constantly evolving. AfroCentric aims to go beyond
achieving minimum compliance and strives to ensure a
sustainable and successful organisation. AfroCentric would
like to build a better future not only for its shareholders, but
for all stakeholders, i.e. employees, customers, suppliers,
community, industry and business partners.
Having effective governance processes, built on the core
values as recommended by King III, will provide AfroCentric
with a competitive advantage that also attracts and retains
talent and generates positive reaction in the marketplace.
There is much to be done to achieve this goal, and more
emphasis needs to be placed on:
Improvement on independence standards by instilling
Directors’ values in line with their fiduciary requirements.
A review of service providers such as consultants, advisors,
and major suppliers needs to be carried out to resolve
potential conflicts of interest before they arise
Culture, whistle-blowing, anti-corruption – the Board
should pay special attention to this area as it has the
potential to contribute to ethical practices throughout the
organisation
Strengthening of IT governance to ensure that IT risks is
appropriately mitigated