Crack group of Emiratis sought for elite audit duties

The UAE is looking to recruit a team of Emirati CIA specialists - certified internal auditors.

Abdulqader Obaid Ali, the president of the UAE Internal Audit Association, wants to see a rise in the number of Emirati auditors. Ravindranath K / The National

As many as 40 highly specialised Emiratis are being recruited to join a crack group of investigators known as the CIA.

But these lucky few - 20 men and 20 women - will not be shipping out to Langley, Virginia, to become tomorrow's Jason Bournes. Rather, they will be taking accountancy exams and learning how to create a business presentation to qualify as Certified Internal Auditors - the other CIA.

"We are looking for nationals who are looking for jobs who actually would love to be in internal audit," said Abdulqader Obaid Ali, the president of the UAE Internal Audit Association (IAA), the local branch of the global body that runs the CIA qualification.

But Mr Obaid Ali is not just looking for any applicant to qualify for the six to nine-month programme, known as 20 and 20. "They must be very special," he added.

"We say you have to have that appetite for internal audit so we are doing special screening. We are partnering with members of the big five accountancy firms to help us do this."

Of the 1,700 members of the IAA in the country, only 195 are Emiratis, an imbalance Mr Obaid Ali hopes to address in the coming years.

"We hope to start the programme by September. First we have to identify the nationals, and we are looking for partners on the other side, so when they have finished they will be able to get a job," he said.

Amanda Line, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who runs the firm's training academy in the UAE, welcomed the move. "This sounds like a really good thing for the industry. We would be delighted to have more Emiratis in the internal audit community," she said. "It is great to see Emiratis upskilling to take on the challenges we face."

The Emiratisation plan will build upon the industry standard CIA qualification to add what Mr Obaid Ali called "soft skills training".

"We are trying to have something that is catered for our culture here. Not only the qualification which is the CIA but enhanced with some practical audit experience and some soft skills which today are more important," he said.

"Everyone thinks an auditor needs to be from a finance background but that's not the case. One of the most important skill sets is communication, technical writing and presentation."

Mr Obaid Ali revealed the plans for the Emirati training programme yesterday at the 14th Annual Regional Audit Conference at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The event was sponsored by PwC.