The Acceptance Speech of Ms. Zaida Lazaro, 2024 Chairman and President of IIA Philippines, was delivered on 28 February 2024 during the 1st General Membership Meeting.

Honorable Former BSP Governor and current President of Philtrust Bank, Dr. Jaime C. Laya
President and CEO of AF Payments Inc., Mr. Jonathan Juan “JJ” Moreno
Board Member at MTRCB, Ms. Lilian Gui
Ms. Dinah E. Pichay, President of the Association of Government Internal Auditors (AGIA),
Former IIAP Presidents and Board of Trustees,
Incumbent members of the IIAP Board of Trustees,
Volunteer Committee Chairpersons and Members,
IIA Members, fellow Chief Audit Executives, Internal Audit Leaders, and Internal Auditors,
Friends and peers in the profession,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

First of all, allow me to thank everyone for welcoming me as the 2024 Chairman and President of IIA-P.

I stand before you today with a deep sense of humility and profound awareness of the immense responsibility that comes with the position.

I express my utmost gratitude to Donna, and my previous fellow 2023 Board of Trustees, for making IIA-P’s ride last year worthwhile.

I want to specially mention one of those who sincerely believed in me and in my potential as a leader of the Institute, Ms. Richel Mendoza, who was then the 2019 Chairman & President of the IIA-P.

Today is also special since I am standing in front of my former boss and mentor, Dr. Jaime C. Laya. Another person I am also indebted to is no other than Mr. JJ Moreno, who is also a mentor turned friend when we met at ICD.

This year’s theme, Driving Purposeful Change, centers on re-visiting and re-calibrating our ways of working, our action plans, our values, and our sense of purpose.

One purposeful change you will see this year is the diversity in the Board.  Our diversity in terms of gender, age, experience, skills, and history with IIA-P is now our source of collective strength.

We are blessed with the current set of 2024 Board of Trustees, as we have mutual respect, openness in the exchange of information, trust, robust and objective talks on issues and these shall help us in effective decision-making for the benefit of every member present in this room.

One change that you would also expect is the change in our organization, both at the Board level and the Professional Office level.

We commit to be a working Board, not only focusing on our oversight role but as functional Board of Trustees. This year, you will see new Committees, with all the Board of Trustees as Chair of each Committee.

Another change is our ways of working as a Board and how we work with the Professional Office.

We aim to make each interaction efficient and effective and continue striving to re-assess ourselves in terms of how we handle our affairs and operations at the Board. We shall lead with curiosity, with learning and growth as our mindset.

We stand firm on decisions that shall benefit everyone. Whenever we decide on an issue, an initiative or a project, we commit to always lean towards what would benefit and provide value to our volunteers and members and the Board will make decisions collegially & collectively.

We commit to find common themes within dissenting views and bring about a consensus.

During our 2024 Strategic Planning in January, our main goal was to revisit the action plans under the strategic initiatives. This is to adapt to the changing and dynamic environment where the Institute is operating in.

In 2024, we intend to focus on our key thrusts:

For the assigned Trustee, please stand to be recognized as I call your name, thank you:

a. Stakeholders. We shall delight and communicate with our stakeholders and provide them with relevant, reliable, and quality products and services.

We shall expand our membership and volunteer network, as the Membership Committee, headed by our Vice President and 2^nd Vice- Chairman, Larry Franciso, have started new programs and activities in relation to identifying other benefits that are sustainable and equitable to our volunteers, including past presidents and BoTs, and both professional and student members.  We are also exploring new mentorship and other programs designed to prepare our members as future leaders. Through our Membership Committee, we shall change the way we handle data. We shall perform a clean-up of our database to help us gain more insights on how to improve the quality of our products and services.

The Professional Development Programs Committee, headed by Jojo Feliciano, is focusing on various projects and initiatives to make our members ready for the new Global Internal Audit Standards and increase educational offerings for our learning on demand product, support our members who strive to be Certified Internal Auditors or CIAs through our upgraded review and educational resources.  We are also making sure to align our training offerings with the needs of our members, in accordance with the updated IIA Global Competency Framework.

We also strive to support Chief Audit Executives and all internal audit teams on their quest for continuous improvement through our Quality Assurance Review services in partnership with IIA Global.

Our Technical Standards and Research Committee, headed by Christine Say-Mendoza, has taken on the execution of the survey project, State of Internal Auditing in the Philippines Under the Lens of the C-Suite. The Committee shall also spearhead new programs and activities on the new Global Internal audit Standards following the IPPF Evolution Timeline as released by IIA Global and localize IIA Global research materials such as the future Risk in Focus report, among others.  We are also looking at producing several materials, such as case studies or even a book, if we have ample time to deliver the same within the year, which is another new project.

The newly formed Conferences Committee, headed by Jeffree Mae Tapia, has taken on the challenge of offering effective conferences and a convention to enhance networking, collaboration, and new, exciting learning experiences among the members.  We shall look at new, exciting topics and expand the speakers and subject matter experts pool with new names.

The Institute will not exist without the notable contributions of various internal audit professionals and our long-time members and partners, hence, the newly established Awards and Recognition Committee, headed by Cristy Lacsamana, has started working on various programs to recognize the efforts and loyalty of our esteemed members and supporters.  Later on, Cristy will be presenting several changes in one of our award programs.

b. Community. We shall aim to be recognized as a premier strategic partner for good governance and create a significant impact on society. The re-organization of the Board, and the creation of a new committee on ESG, headed by Neriza Garcia, is a start. We have started working on several programs and activities in relation to adopting ESG framework and principles within the organization. In preparing for this shift, we also established our Marketing and Sponsorship Programs Committee, headed by Benjilyn Joanino, who shall lead the creation of our marketing & communications plan during the year. Our goal is to make sure all members are aware of the Institute’s products and services and create win-win, sustainable partnerships with sponsors.

We shall change the way we communicate. We shall expand our tools of communication to not only include basic social media applications but to explore on other technology available.  Expanding our footprint in the community requires a great deal of good communication and information dissemination, and this is what we intend to focus on this year.

c. Partnership. We shall strengthen existing and create new alliances with the government, education sector, private sector, professional and non-professional organizations. The newly defined distinct roles of the Academe & Advocacy Committees enhance focus in the delivery of low volume, low effort, but high impact programs and activities this year. For the Academic Programs Committee, headed by Chams Villamora- Dacanay, we have started a new project with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and we shall continue pursuing new programs with the National Association of CPAs in Education and with two major universities with the objective of promoting the profession to eventually meet the demands for internal audit professionals in the country.

Under Advocacy, headed by our 1^st Vice Chairman and Vice President – Rosell Gomez, we shall arrange new projects and activities with the government such as Deputy Executive Secretary for Internal Audit of the Office of the President or DESIA and AGIA, other government-owned and controlled corporations and/or regulators such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and large non-profit organizations.  Talks are underway, and please expect our invitation for you to take part on those programs and initiatives with these major institutions.

d. Continuity. We shall maintain and sustain our operations through resource optimization, effective succession planning, and commitment to excellence.

This year, the Board, through its internal affairs, which is now under the Chairman & President, has supported the Secretariat in building its succession plan, and we support our Chief Operating Officer in creating a program to ensure that institutional knowledge is not lost and that our Professional Office employees are rewarded and trained to become better managers and leaders.

Under the Chairman and President, IIA-P shall create a new strategy framework to ensure that our vision and mission, and our corresponding strategies are in consonance with what we are, what we are doing, and where we are going as a 76-year-old institution.

As mentioned earlier, the Board shall improve on its documentation and ways of working. This will be done under the leadership of our Corporate Secretary, Annabeth Bernardo.  We are keen on building on the institutional knowledge but we have to ensure that the organization’s legal/ regulatory information assets are properly documented and safekept for the use of the next generations of the Board and the Professional Office in light of transparency.

We also strive to  uphold our governance initiatives as our guiding light, and we have our former Chairman and President, Dona Aala to lead our Governance Committee.

Further, our Technical Committee, headed by Aldwin Perez, has taken on the challenge of implementing our Information Technology & Communication Resource Plan (ICTRP), our priority is the roll-out of the robotics process automation (RPA) in registration, billing, and collection this year.  The rest of the Committee’s projects will fall under IT governance, business continuity planning and even crisis management.

Indeed, one of the most important is our Finance Committee, headed by our Corporate Treasurer, Ofelia Barroga, who shall provide oversight on the execution of our investment policy, monitor actual financial results versus our performance targets, and protect and safeguard the organization’s assets with the support of the Audit Committee, headed by Carmela Capili- Del Mundo, who shall only not provide oversight on the work of the external auditor but the Audit Committee to provide value-added assurance & consulting work for IIA-P as mandated by the Board.

Finally, allow me to recognize the efforts of the members of the Professional Office, headed by the Chief Operating Officer, Eloisa Acosta, in making sure that the Institute runs on a day-to-day basis and deliver our products and services as planned. The Board commits to empowering the Professional Office leaders, managers and staff to remove key obstacles that stop them from acting on the changes that they have to implement and help them achieve quick wins.

We see a bright future in IIA-P, because we are building on strength and excellence in our resources, our programs, our activities, and our global reach – but it is going to take each and every one of us working as a team together, doing what we can – to make all the planned initiatives I have presented earlier, work.

Before I end, allow me to quote Thomas L. Friedman in his book, “Thank you for being late”, he said “If you want to solve a big problem, you need to go from taking credit, to sharing credit, to multiplying credit. The systems that all work, they multiply credit. Multiplying credit is just another way of making everyone feel a part of the system,” feeling a part of that ownership in that system. “And the byproduct,” as he goes on to say, “is resilience and propulsion.”

With that, I extend my sincerest thank you to everyone and on behalf of the 2024 Board of Trustees, we share all the present and future credits with you.

Together, we can drive purposeful change.

Thank you, very much and good day.