Double Duty: Auditors as Ethical Role Models and Guardians

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What’s ethics got to do with it? Auditors have a dual relationship with ethics, serving as both practitioners and guardians. On one hand, they must adhere to a strict professional code of ethics, ensuring independence, objectivity, integrity, and confidentiality in their work. On the other hand, they act as watchdogs, evaluating and ensuring organizational compliance with ethical standards, codes of conduct, and legal requirements regulating fraud, ethical breaches, misappropriation of funds and corruption. This dual role positions auditors as ethical role models while holding organizations accountable for ethical behavior. By balancing these responsibilities, auditors play a critical role in fostering trust, transparency, and accountability, ultimately contributing to the integrity and sustainability of organizations and the broader business and government environment.

This webinar will explore this dual role by examining auditor’s codes of ethics as well as audit topics and strategies relevant in today’s organizational risk landscape. We will look at case studies of actual audits that have wrestled with ethical and legal issues, either tangentially or directly.

SPEAKERS

Sharon Clark Sharon manages the delivery of CAAF’s audit training and builds new opportunities to expand CAAF’s reach. Sharon was a Principal Director at the Office of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada from 2006 to 2019 and 2023 to 2024, where she led performance audits of multiple federal government departments. From 2010 to 2013 she led the performance audit methodology team, revised the performance audit manual and procedures, and contributed to the development of international performance audit standards. Before joining the Office of the Auditor General, Sharon spent 10 years as a management consultant at PwC, specializing in human resources and change management. Sharon has an MBA from McGill University and a BA in political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sharon has lived in Argentina, Israel, Italy, Spain, and the United States and speaks English, Spanish, French and Hebrew.

Yves Genest Yves is an experienced audit professional, having worked in a variety of organizations and offices over the past thirty years. He is presently a consultant and is working on various research projects related to the audit of anticorruption activities, ESG, and artificial intelligence. Until recently, Yves Genest was Vice-President, Research and Strategic Initiatives at the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF). Yves was responsible for the development of research projects and activities requiring the expertise and knowledge of public sector auditing. Prior to joining CAAF, he served among other roles as CAE at Shared Services Canada and as Principal, Practice Development at the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. He holds master’s degrees in public administration and political science.