The Middle East Member Firm of Protiviti, a global consulting firm, in collaboration with Oman Oil Company, addressed audit professionals, business leaders and project heads on the intricacies of technical and capital project audits recently.

Several professionals from the subsidiaries of Oman Oil Company attended the conference, where the emphasis was on the need to have adequate controls in place to minimise project delays, avoid cost over runs, mitigate risks and ensure organisational objectives are met, said a statement.

As facilitators, Protiviti subject matter experts shared insights into aspects such as evaluation of investment decisions, efficiency and reliability of operations, process compliance, and adoption of health and safety standards.

The interactive session included discussion on audit mechanisms, project life cycle, business risks and role of auditors in today's changing business landscape.

Harish Visweswaraiah, Protiviti’s managing director, said: “The tag line of the session was ‘Trust is good, control is better: Just test it’, which is precisely what we wanted to impart to our participants.”

“The Oil & Gas industry is critical to the growing economy of Oman and organisations are making huge investments to expand their businesses. However, the environment in which the industry functions poses technical and functional challenges which makes it imperative for companies to adopt measures that not only responds to existing challenges but also pre-empt them,” he added.

Shatha Al Maskiry, country head and managing director, mentioned that Protiviti has been actively engaging the local business community through a series of workshops and business seminars on the practices of internal audit and risk management, human capital management, fraud and forensics and IT consulting.

“Such sessions provide an excellent platform for subject matter experts and practitioners to share industry leading practices that result in business excellence,” concluded Shatha. - TradeArabia News Service