Many SGX-listed firms not getting Internal Audit right

On August 6, 2018, a revised Code of Corporate Governance was released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and certain corporate governance practices were made mandatory for all listed companies through changes to the listing rules of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Starting from January 1, 2019, the SGX Rulebooks for both Mainboard and Catalist companies require that all companies “must establish and maintain on an ongoing basis, an effective internal audit function that is adequately resourced and independent of the activities it audits”. This follows enhancements in the guidelines on internal audit (IA) in earlier revisions of the Code of Corporate Governance.