She is the director at large of the board of directors at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Global, the highest structure in the internal audit profession overseeing over 170,000 internal auditors worldwide."When you look at job descriptions of an internal auditor in vacancy adverts, you would realise that they are unknowingly looking for something else. We need to do a lot of education and awareness about internal audit," observes Lesetedi who is also a member of the Institutes Relations Committee (IRC) for IIA Global for 2011-2014.She is further credited with co-founding the African Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors (AFIIA) where she serves as the chairperson of the Governing Council for 2011-2013. Here at home she is the founding director of Internal Audit at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST). From 2004 until last year, she was the president of the IIA Botswana and chairperson of the Board of Governors. While she has become a global industry leader, the profession of internal audit at home is yet to catch up with her class act. Many management and boards of directors in the country are yet to wrap their heads around the workings and ethos of internal audit.
"Some managers see internal auditors as obstacles and bloodhounds, especially those with hidden agendas," she observes. With the internal auditor functionally reporting to the board of directors or through an audit committee, other managers cannot help thinking that Lesetedi’s kind is out to rat on them. Perhaps the discomfort is inevitable, given the fact that the internal auditor reports administratively to management. "But its simply oversight, gatwe mampodi ga ipone," Lesetedi explains. Internal audit functions include, among other things, examining, evaluating and monitoring the efficacy of operations, the reliability of financial reporting, deterring and investigating fraud, safeguarding assets, and compliance with laws and regulations. Internal audit furthermore involves measuring compliance with the organisation’s policies and procedures.
