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Arguably, the most significant change in the UAE business landscape has been the introduction of VAT at the beginning of 2018. We at Rethink, believe this has been a change for the better and has forced many organizations throughout the region to become more rigorous in the way they record basic business information. Prior to 2018 many companies really were not aware of the data that supported their business and certainly wouldn’t have had the ability to make informed decisions using facts and figures. More likely a “gut feel” approach.

We believe, as the region matures, more and more regulations will be introduced with undoubtedly additional compliance requirements. With increasing competition and unavoidable evolving risks, organizations will need to be controlled in effective ways to make faster decisions, promoting proactive behavior, looking at risks and managing their way around them calmly and without drama. Stepping away from reaction management and anticipating issues long before they land

To a large extent, this can be achieved by Internal Audit, where conventional audit techniques can be employed to measure total adherence to processes, but this tool is evolving to become a participator in the identification of value creation opportunities. Internal Audit has moved away from pure fraud detection to be a participative influencer of the senior management team and remove risks before they become nasty challenges.

We have seen a real change in the way companies operate. The whole business ecosystem within the UAE has always been cost-conscious, but now because of systems, empowering technology and the increased requirement to meet legislative compliances, entrepreneurs are looking at ways to improve processes to save time and money. Embarking on continuous improvement programs, mapping processes to see where the bottlenecks lie and even considering every employee as an individual risk manager

We see Internal Audit more than a compliance-based solution that fosters a high-level commitment to integrity and ethically driven behavior, we also see Internal Audit as a tool to drive strategic improvements and influence the behavior of management to be cost-conscious and challenging of non-value adding routines and activities

Rethink is already involved in several Internal Audit exercises throughout the region with entities of varying sizes and we have delivered several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of savings to these clients. For those organizations that do not have the budget or the need for a full-time Internal Audit function, these can easily be outsourced. The beauty of outsourcing this function is that the cost is very quickly recovered.

At all times Rethink staff aim to become long term business partners with our clients and demonstrate significant value add with our experienced approach to Internal Audit. We look to strengthen future growth strategies, develop and implement KPI’s or business trackers assuring the achievement of critical staging posts along with a defined business road map. Ensuring tax efficiency and tax compliance with the appropriate systems and reporting structures to manage the business effectively.

If you would like to have an informal conversation with one of our Internal Audit experts, please feel free to contact us. We would be delighted to demonstrate how we can increase the value of your business