The positive progress in the standardization of accounting guidelines in Brazil, especially the harmonization of Brazilian and international standards, including IFRS and IPSAS, brought valuable eminently accounting guidance, but also triggered a new behavior of professionals who work directly in accounting and in all those who generate events that are transformed into accounting events. In this context, the existence of internal controls is essential to implement controls, routines, and practices, including accounting practices, that produce complete, timely and reliable information.
Organizations are always in transformation and pressured for results in every sense, but delaying actions to implement improvements or best practices of internal controls, which mainly simplify the lives of individuals and entities themselves, can be more costly and cruel for everyone, as people will continue to run out of time to advance and improve their lives and organizations will continue to incur unnecessary costs and inefficiencies of all kinds.
In addition to the guidelines in the accounting standards that indicate the need for formalized understandings of the accounting practices adopted by organizations, the Securities and Exchange Commission - CVM, through circular letters, has reinforced the guidelines in the same direction and provides guidance on the preparation of financial statements and has been considered an effective instrument to safeguard the quality of the information disseminated in the market.
Ibracon — Institute of Independent Auditors of Brazil issued Circular no. 02/2016 with guidance on the issuance by external auditing of letters containing recommendations for the improvement of internal controls in entities registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). It should be noted that the Company's Management and those responsible for its Corporate Governance have the primary responsibility for evaluating accounting and control issues, and the role of Independent Auditors is responsible for scrutinizing them with all the usual zeal, skepticism and responsibility with which they carry out their activities.
Sometimes, despite the guidelines in the regulations, by entities such as CVM and IBRACON, as well as by external auditing, in addition to the organizations' perception that organized controls and processes are necessary to reduce costs, to be efficient and to have an environment of quality of information, including agility and timeliness, it seems that there is a lack of perception of the benefits of additional efforts to invest to improve and reap positive results almost simultaneously. In this sense, it is necessary to have the courage and vision to define priorities to organize the house and reap the benefits. Structuring a task force to act and solve in a structured and objective manner can be the solution, either by displacing internal resources in organizations or hiring specialists to solve deficiencies.
At times of greater pressure, as in economic crises that affect everyone, the environment requires seeking greater efficiency in organizations, so they become moments of greater opportunities to optimize information flows, either by exchanging, customizing, or eliminating the barriers and obstacles that inhibit efficiency of any kind. Reinventing and innovating can be the solution to old problems and generate new opportunities, since it is always necessary to adapt to new times and generate new opportunities. Acting on the three main pillars of organizational structures is key to new times: technology, people, and processes. It's not enough to have cutting-edge technology if you don't have qualified people and vice versa, and it's not enough to have qualified people and cutting-edge technology and not have structured internal control processes. It is necessary to establish a balance between the three pillars in order to achieve the best results, both in terms of personal professional satisfaction and in the economic and financial results that are produced.
