AUDIT
THE FUTURE OF AUDIT IS
With technologies like blockchain and automation on the rise, Vodacom South Africa FD Sitho Mdlalose highlights the need to establish audit teams that are tasked with creating value through insights and that can “think digital”. By Tamara Oberholster
“
The word that springs to mind when I think of the future of audit is ‘digital’,” says Vodacom SA FD Sitho Mdlalose. “The future of audit for me is really about the future of business in general, and that’s digital.”
Sitho was appointed FD of Vodacom South Africa in 2020 after the Vodacom Group restructured and the decision was taken for the South African company to operate as a standalone company. Before that, he held the role of CFO for International Business at Vodacom for several years, giving him a good understanding of the challenges of managing internal audit for a multinational entity. As Vodacom continues on its journey from telco to tech company, Sitho believes that audit will play an important role. “Yes, assurance is great because of what it does, and from an audit function perspective, it helps me protect the value that the organisation has built,”
48
CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA
he says. But beyond this, he believes that the future of audit, and where it can truly begin to create value, is through providing increased insights. “The future of audit cannot be purely protection of existing value – it can help create future value.” Like all areas of business, audit will also need to keep pace with rapid digitalisation. With technologies like blockchain and automation on the rise, Sitho highlights the need to establish audit teams that are tasked with creating value through insights and which can “think digital”. As processes are automated and digitised, Sitho believes there will be a shift towards continuous monitoring. “It will no longer make sense to continue to do manual testing when there are these automated processes,” he says. “As automation happens, the level of effort required to manage them lessens, and so processes and controls can run concurrently on a continuous basis.”
