Risk Governance Process Research Articles

Frontier AI developers need an internal audit function.

This article argues that frontier artificial intelligence (AI) developers need an internal audit function. First, it describes the role of internal audit in corporate governance: internal audit evaluates the adequacy and effectiveness of a company's risk management, control, and governance processes. It is organizationally independent from senior management and reports directly to the board of directors, typically its audit committee. In the Institute of Internal Auditors' Three Lines Model, internal audit serves as the third line and is responsible for providing assurance to the board, whereas the combined assurance framework highlights the need to coordinate the activities of internal and external assurance providers. Next, the article provides an overview of key governance challenges in frontier AI development: Dangerous capabilities can arise unpredictably and undetected; it is difficult to prevent a deployed model from causing harm; frontier models can proliferate rapidly; it is inherently difficult to assess frontier AI risks; and frontier AI developers do not seem to follow best practices in risk governance. Finally, the article discusses how an internal audit function could address some of these challenges: Internal audit could identify ineffective risk management practices; it could ensure that the board of directors has a more accurate understanding of the current level of risk and the adequacy of the developer's risk management practices; and it could serve as a contact point for whistleblowers. But frontier AI developers should also be aware of key limitations: Internal audit adds friction; it can be captured by senior management; and the benefits depend on the ability of individuals to identify ineffective practices. In light of rapid progress in AI research and development, frontier AI developers need to strengthen their risk governance. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they should follow existing best practices. Although this might not be sufficient, they should not skip this obvious first step.

Communicative Framework Development for Construction Risk Governance: An Analysis of Risk and Trust Perception for Organizational Sustainability

In the construction industry, risk governance stems from the standardization of safety policies and procedures. Safety governance is typically communicated and enforced through a top-down, command-and-control approach. Procedures and policies are created at the top level and cascaded down to the work. Individual discretion in the workplace permits a choice for worker adherence to safety procedures. Through a literature review, this study identified risk perception as a significant variable in regulatory compliance and fidelity. Individual hazard assessments and risk behaviors are often based on subjective cognitive risk perceptions rather than organizational governance policy. In the current governance system, there is a misalignment of risk perceptions and failure in trust between the workforce and the regulatory process. This study examines the impact of risk perceptions on safety compliance and promotes a more participative risk governance process for sustainable construction practices. A participative framework model is proposed to help align worker risk perceptions with organizational governance through policy creation, policy compliance and stakeholder participation and feedback. Utilizing proper discourse and cyclical communication, the proposed framework aims to increase safety fidelity, compliance, and trust in the construction industry through a more inclusive and collaborative governance strategy.

Investigating Electronic Incident Reporting Systems and Its Role Within Healthcare to Improve Patient Safety: An Integrative Literature Review

Incident reporting is a welcomed practice in industries such as aviation for improving safety. This practice is now welcomed in healthcare in many countries (Vincent, 2010). For instance, In the UK, incident reporting is a component of individual hospital risk governance processes and a key requirement for National Health Service (NHS) Organizations (Rooksby et al., 2007). In spite of this, widespread implementation of incident reporting is still not clear even though reporting has resulted in improvements to safety. Vincent et al. (2008) cited that recent studies of incident reporting suggest that its role in managing safety has been over emphasized and there should be less emphasis on counting incidents and more emphasis on analyzing the effectiveness of incidents and institutional learning (Braithwaite et al., 2011). Most studies of incident reporting have focused on factors, such as staff willingness to report incidents, barriers to incident reporting, and the culture surrounding reporting. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of electronic incident reporting systems in improving safety, and there is little evidence regarding how the technology contributes to safety (Anderson et al., 2013). For this reason, the purpose of this study was to investigate electronic incident reporting systems and its role within healthcare to improve patient safety. By focusing on this, the researcher was successful in highlighting a series of behaviors and perceptions around electronic incident reporting. Equally important, the researcher provided several themes that has been known to both inhibit and promote confidence within this technology offering. Thereafter, the researcher then suggested strategies for healthcare leaders to consider when adopting as a means to help bridge the gap between healthcare workers and electronic incident reporting systems.

An investigation into risk governance processes to encourage behaviour change to reduce disaster risk: A case study of Barbados

Organizations involved in the reduction of risk, emanating from hazardous events, play an important role in influencing the responses of households to reduce disaster risk either by the enforcement of regulations or by encouraging the adoption of best practices. One way this can be done is by examining ways to enhance knowledge exchange, better understanding of household safety behaviours and improved perceptions of risk. Further, micro-level research approaches are needed to examine how organizations involved in risk reduction and households interact in order to understand the contributing factors that hamper effective decision making and actions to reduce disaster risk in small island developing states (SIDS) of the Caribbean.This study investigates how organization's disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches have incorporated risk perception, safety behaviours, and knowledge into their internal DRR plans. This case study took place in Barbados, a SIDS in the Caribbean. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured informant interviews (n = 33). Findings of the key stakeholder interviews revealed that most organizations lacked systematic approaches to engage households and lacked clear impact pathways in the theory of change and did not strategically target identified vulnerable population subgroups for the desired behavioural change. There was a noted gap in understanding how risk perception influences and shapes risk and safety behaviours at the household level. Based on the results of this research strategies employed to reduce risk and build resilience can include key ways to integrate how the use of safety culture, and risk perception can enhance knowledge exchange for the development and improvement of place-specific DRR strategies.

Understanding the Ecosystem of Enterprise Risk Governance

ABSTRACTApproaches to risk governance are not homogeneous across organizations. Some organizations invest heavily in building formal and strategically focused enterprise-wide risk governance processes whereas others exhibit reduced formality and focus, allowing risk governance to be less structured. We argue that risk governance may best be described as a service dependent upon a network (or ecosystem) of participants who include users of risk information and providers who design and implement risk governance processes. Using a survey sample of 2,380 observations from 2011 to 2016, we find that external calls for enhanced risk governance are positively associated with risk governance processes having greater formality and strategic focus. We find this relationship is partially mediated by internal demands for enhanced risk governance. Further, we find that the positive association between internal demands and enhanced risk governance is reduced by resource constraints and that a risk-seeking attitude is negatively associated with enhanced risk governance.Data Availability: Contact the authors.JEL Classifications: G30; M10; M14; M40.

P-294 The impact of audit in embryology laboratory and its outcome - A multicentric study

Abstract Study question Would establishing an audit division in the embryology department of a well-organized multicentric IVF chain improve compliance thereby improving laboratory Key Performing Indicators (KPIs)? Summary answer The internal audits not only helped in increasing compliance but also KPIs like blastocyst rate, good blastocyst rate and β-HCG rate across various centers. What is known already Audit plays an important role in multiple industries worldwide. It has been proven to improve compliance with system, process and productivity of the organization. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by using a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. As every organization has its own set of SOPs and KPIs there’s no universally accepted audit process; hence we introduced and implemented an indigenously designed audit system to ensure compliance and optimize laboratory performance as per the organizational Standard Operating Protocol (SOPs) to verify the Quality Management System (QMS) implementation. Study design, size, duration A retrospective cohort study was conducted in 30 centers of Indira IVF across India. Audits were planned in 2021/22 and KPIs were compared with pre and post-audit periods. Study duration was April-2019 to March-2022. Various parameters were used to analyze compliance based on checklist of 120 checkpoints divided into 7 categories like facility & lab management, laboratory process, SOP implementation, etc. Audit covered every critical area with 360-degree approach including people, equipment, facility & processes. Participants/materials, setting, methods The compliance rate was considered as the primary outcome and blastocyst, good blastocyst and β-HCG rate were taken as secondary outcomes. Pre-audit (Group-1) and post-audit (GrouP-2) outcomes were compared by paired T-test. The change in compliance rate was calculated as (Average Compliance after 2nd Audit – Average compliance in 1st Audit)/ Average Compliance after 2nd Audit*100. All p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Package for social science (IBM SPSS), V28.0. Main results and the role of chance The average percent increase in compliance rate (74.03 ± 7.49 to 80.0 ± 7.94; p < 0.001) was statistically significant. Considering a team of 100 plus embryologists and 175 plus doctors panned across India, this improvement was substantial. The increase in average total blastocyst rate (48.48 ± 15.01 vs 54.52 ± 12.19; p < 0.001), average good blastocyst rate (29.15 ± 9.85 vs 31.05 ± 8.37; p < 0.02) and average β-HCG success rate (71.73 ± 9.97 vs 75.16 ± 8.28; p < 0.001) in G1 and G2 respectively was statistically significant. With respect to 30 individual centers, a statistically significant increase was found in 15 centers for blastocyst rate, in 16 centers for good blastocyst rate and in 7 centers for β-HCG success rate. Leaving 11 centers with blastocyst rate, 7 centers with good blastocyst rate and 17 centers with β-HCG success rates showed improvement though it was non-significant. All audits were carried out by independent competent and qualified auditors. Considering the above-mentioned data, we observed that audit is playing a very vital role in quality management systems. It helps to establish compliance with systems, processes and SOPs thereby improving immediate laboratory KPIs and overall outcomes for even established organizations. Limitations, reasons for caution Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, data from April 2020 to March 2021 could not be collected for analysis. The study has been conducted till β-HCG outcomes. Further, implantation rate and live pregnancy has not been analyzed. Wider implications of the findings “Audit system” plays a very vital role in the IVF laboratory for even SOP-driven organizations to ensure stringent adherence with regards to implementing and ensuring compliance. It is highly recommended that an audit system should be a part of every organization to improve QMS and overall outcomes. Trial registration number not applicable

Mô hình ba tuyến và vai trò của kiểm toán nội bộ tại các doanh nghiệp niêm yết

Internal audit is an important part of corporate governance. Internal Audit as an independent and objective supervisor of operating processes, giving opinions to improve the efficiency of risk management processes, control processes and governance processes. Thereby, providing the Board of Directors and leaders with an independent view to promote cooperation, monitoring and early warning about new risks, improving the efficiency of business processes to add value and improve operations, while playing a catalytic role and fostering an internal corporate culture of risk management and compliance. In this article, the author mentions the three lines model and compares the three lines model with the previous three lines model of defense to identify challenges internal audit in joint stock companies. The research results make recommendations to enhance the role of internal audit in governance in order to minimize risks, fraud, and bring more value to businesses at Joint stock companies.

On the strength of arguments related to standardization in risk management regulations

Risk-informed decision-making is a key concept in regulatory regimes covering a wide range of technical disciplines and risk domains. Increased standardization in terms of highly prescriptive and detailed requirements is observed in various risk management regulations and application areas. This development has spurred a discussion with equally strong voices promoting and opposing standardization of risk. The aim of this paper is to explore the knowledge base from scientific literature related to effects of standardization of risk and to assess the strength of the arguments used in the discussion. Through a scoping study and a systematic argument analysis, this study contributes to the debate on the most adequate approach to standardization in risk management regulations. Conclusions from the study are that effects of standardization of risk management regulations are not widely covered in scientific literature and empirical evidence is largely lacking to support the arguments used. The argument analysis indicate that many arguments are assessed as being weak, interconnected and even contradictory. It seems not possible to come to a conclusion and reach agreement in the discussion if the strengths of standardization outweigh the weaknesses. Thus, the discussion should be in the form of dialectic rather than debate. Acknowledging, understanding and addressing the various arguments in favour of and rejecting standardization, as well as their respective context, is essential when designing risk management regulations. Future research efforts are required to further explore when and how the risk management and risk governance processes can be standardized and the appropriate level of standardization.

THE EFFECTS OF FOREST FIRES IN THE SUMMER 2021 ON FIRE FIGHTINGS ANTALYA FIRE DEPARTMENT EXAMPLE

Disasters (earthquake, flood, tsunami, forest fires, etc.) experienced in the world due to global warming and climate changes continue to increase. Unfortunately, these disasters, which have increased in the world, have also been reflected in our country. Forest fires in the period of July-August 2021 are among the largest recorded forest fires in history. Forest fires in the period of July-August 2021 are among the largest recorded forest fires in history. Between these dates, a total of 135 thousand hectares of land, including the rural area, unfortunately burned in the forest fires in the province of Antalya. During the fire, evacuation was carried out in nearly 50 neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the fire turned into a Level 3 disaster and hundreds of buildings were damaged. The fact that the damaged buildings were heavily damaged and moderately damaged increased the size of the material damage. Unfortunately, 250 people were injured and 7 people died in the fires. The fire also adversely affected wildlife, and as a result, hundreds of small and large animals living in the forest lost their lives, along with hundreds of small cattle and sheep. Fire brigades from all over our country, especially the Antalya Fire Brigade, participated in the intervention efforts to forest fires in order to extinguish this fire without losing time and take it under control. Disaster Management; It can be defined as an integrated struggle process that includes all the necessary factors to reduce the damage caused by the negative effects of disasters and to carry out preventive works, to intervene in the negative situations after the disaster in an effective, fast and timely manner, to reduce the effects of the disaster and to create a safe and new living space for the society. In other words, disaster management is the responsibility of all public institutions and non-governmental organizations in order to reduce the damages of the disaster, to carry out preventive works, to take the precautions before, during and after the disaster, and to plan, coordinate, direct, support and effectively implement the necessary works. It is a multi-disciplinary, multi-actor, multi-faceted, dynamic and integrated risk governance process that requires organizations to use their opportunities and resources in line with the targeted strategic priorities and objectives. Antalya Fire Department has an experienced and dynamic structure in responding to forest fires. It intervened with all its devotion to the forest fires in the summer of 2021 and prevented the fire from causing further damage. Whatever the reason, forest fires turn into disasters when they negatively affect human settlements and the entire ecosystem in the region where they occur. A fact that we experience a lot is the fact that forest fires repeat themselves or have a rotating period. In other words, forest fires are constant and will continue to happen. Therefore, we can deduce that forest fires that occur in certain regions at certain periods or at periodic intervals will repeat themselves. Even in the most developed countries of the world, forest fires unfortunately repeat themselves in certain periods. But we should not forget that a disaster that has happened to us is also an opportunity for a possible disaster that may happen to us later. We need to take advantage of this opportunity and pass the stages of preparedness, mitigation, recovery and response more efficiently before a disaster occurs.

POSSIBILITIES TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF REGULARITY/COMPLIANCE AUDIT USING THE BALANCED SCORECARD METHOD (BSC)


 The regularity/compliance audit is a specific type of internal audit meant to examine the processes, activities and actions carried out in public or private entities, on the basis of a frame of reference designed in such a way as to allow at the level of these structures an assurance on the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. This activity needs to be continuously refined and modernized in order to be closely connected to the requirements and needs in continuous dynamics of those audited, and the Balanced Scorecard model (BSC) offers such a possibility. In the final part we identified, according to the requirements of this model, a set of questionnaires for auditors and audited, performance indicators, elements of innovation, connection and strategies, which applied or investigated in military entities, will allow highlighting the possibilities to increase the performance of internal audit through regularity / compliance missions.

Improving the system of internal audit in banks

This article analyzes ways to improve internal audit in banks. The experience of Uzbekistan and international experience in internal audit are considered. The importance of internal audit in banks and the role of the bank in the sustainable operation are also mentioned. The article also examines various international research on internal audit. Based on the research and analysis, scientific conclusions and recommendations have been developed. This division of the banking system primarily determines the goals, objectives and position of the Central Bank and commercial banks. Commercial banks provide services to individuals and legal entities on a commercial basis. Internal audit is part of the ongoing monitoring of the bank's system of internal controls and of its internal capital assessment procedure. Internal audit provides an independent assessment of the adequacy of, and compliance with, the bank's established policies and procedures. It may help an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ АУДИТУ ЯК ФОРМИ ФІНАНСОВОГО КОНТРОЛЮ

The article describes features and types of audit as a form of financial control. The main reasons for the occurrence of the audit in Ukraine, its official formation and evaluation are named. The definitions of audit and auditor are determined in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. The differences between the audit process and the concepts of " revision" and "control" are indicated. General principles of the audit in enterprise’s financial and economic activity are specified. The article defines the importance of auditing the financial statements of an enterprise The classification of the audit is given. The essence and purpose of each type of the audit are determined. According to this classification, audit is divided into external audit and internal audit. Internal audit is used to check the structure, policy, rules, procedures for securing the safety of assets and reliability of accounting records of the organization, which are descried in its financial statement. Shortly, the role of internal audit is to provide independent assurance that an organization’s risk management, governance and internal control processes are operating effectively. The external audit provides the required audit services (carrying out the revision, providing additional services) by the independent audit firm (independent auditor). Furthermore, the external audit is divided into mandatory audit (Annual audit of accounting and financial activities of the organization of individual enterprise), voluntary audit (audit of accounting and financial activities of the organization or individual enterprise by request of CEO) and special audit (tightly defined audit that only looks at a specific area of an organization's activities). The classification of the audit by type of economic activity of the audited entity is also determined. The result of the audit is to obtain an audit opinion that reflects the accuracy of the information included in audited entity financial statement. The audit opinion plays the most important role in the company's ability in continuing to perform its financial and economic activity. Emphasis is placed on modern digital technologies, which should become a priority in the further development of auditing in Ukraine.

The perceived risk of the Line 5 Pipeline and spills under ice

Using the psychometric paradigm of risk in conjunction with surveys of the Michigan public (n = 638) and a regional planning organization (n = 65), we examine the perceived risk and concerns associated with underwater oil pipelines, the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in particular, and oil spills under ice. The fate of Line 5 is heavily debated in Michigan, specifically the portion that traverses the Straits of Mackinac, which can be ice-covered for months. Scant literature examines how individuals perceive the risk associated with Line 5, its alternatives, or potential spills in open water or under ice. Here we identify considerable concern regarding both the pipeline and the potential for spills under ice on behalf of the public, and increased concern about spills under ice on behalf of the planning organization. Organization members' concerns are significantly predicted by beliefs about the difficulty in remediating spills, however not by beliefs about spills' likelihood, difficulty in detection, noticeability, or consequences. Our results identify the need to better examine and communicate the risks associated with underwater pipelines and spills, both in open water and under ice, as well as options for remediating oil captured under ice. Furthermore, we recommend the adoption of decision-making and risk governance processes that explicitly expand analysis of the social, economic and environmental tradeoffs of underwater pipelines such as Line 5.

Public involvement in risk governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility

The article draws attention to the multidirectional impact of the widespread Internet communication on public involvement in risk governance processes. The prevalence of Internet communication changes the rules of building credibility and trust, and a position of expert knowledge. As online peer-to-peer information are not verified by any single trustworthy institution, the expert community often perceives it as a source of disturbance in risk governance. We refuse to frame online communication simply in terms of a threat to responsible dealing with risks and, instead, demonstrate how it creates new conditions for public involvement in risk governance, which may strengthen or hamper responsible risk governance, potentially compensating for the shortcomings of the system based solely on state agencies’ activities. Basing on the qualitative analysis of three critical cases, we show how the involvement of Internet-enabled groups impacts the risk governance of specific issues in Poland. Specifically, the Internet-enabled participation amplifies evidence-based concerns (the case of city air pollution), signals new “unknown unknowns” (the case of fracking), or weakens procedures based on the body of scientific knowledge (the case of vaccination controversy). To decide when and how to harness the potential of internet-enabled public involvement and when to focus on limiting the harms it may engender, we propose a framework that takes into account the level of uncertainty, the extent to which risk mitigation policy in place reflects the scientific consensus (if there is one), and the accepted rules of credibility and trust by Internet-enabled groups to expert knowledge. We claim that risk governance processes should routinely involve analyses and actions aimed at governing risks that ignore the impact of widespread Internet use may prove counter-effective.

Peran Internal Audit dalam Implementasi Enterprise Risk Management berupa Pelaporan Kerusakan Prosedur Risiko.

Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) by Internal Audit in an orga-nization or company becomes important because Internal Audit is expected to help the organization achieve its objectives by approaching systematic and discipline to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance process. As for which affects it is the involvement of internal auditors, the relation-ship of the audit committee with the internal auditor, and ERM.This study aims to analyze the involvement of Internal Audit in Enterprise Risk mana-gement implementation. Internal auditors should assist both management and audit committees in risk management responsibilities and supervisory roles by examining, evaluating, reporting and recommending improvements to the adequacy and effec-tiveness of risk management processes. An interesting issue is whether internal auditors involved in corporate risk management have a link to the willingness of internal auditors to report to the audit committee.The population in this study are the internal auditors and audit committees who working in companies manufacturing and financial services. The reason for determining the company is because the researcher wants to know how internal audit is involved in ERM implementation on that entity. The sample used in this research is internal auditor at private company and at Banking in this case internal auditor at local bank.The analytical method used is multiple regression analysis with SPSS version 23 pro-gram. The analysis technique used in this research is descriptive statistical analysis, classical assumption test, F-statistic hypothesis test to test influence together with 5% confidence level and use t-statistics to test partial regression coefficients. This re-search was conducted to analyze how much influence the role of Internal Audit in applying Enterprise Risk Management in the implementation of Audit.The result of this research is that the high level of internal auditor involvement in Enterprise Risk management implementation has no significant and significant im-pact on reporting of damage to risk management procedures. This indicates that the role of internal auditors in corporate risk management does not affect the reporting of damage to corporate risk management procedures. While the characteristics of strong relationships between internal auditors and audit committees positively and significantly influence the reporting of risk procedures, this indicates that internal audits that have strong internal audit-audit committee relationships strongly support internal auditors who have high involvement to report damage Greater risk procedures.

Designing a model and prioritizing competencies of internal audit managers: a mixed-methods approach

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity that helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. As the roles of internal auditors increasingly change in organizations, new competencies are needed. The purpose of this research is to Identify and prioritize competencies of internal audit managers. In this research, mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative methods) are used. In other words, first, qualitative research method and grounded theory approach are used for Identifying competencies. To achieve this goal, with obtaining 18 faculty members and internal auditing experts insights through unstructured interviews in 2018-2019, we developed internal auditors’ competency model in Iran. According to this model, internal auditor managers need a series of Individual, technical, managerial and environmental competencies to achieve the desired level of effectiveness. Then, in the quantitative part of the research, by analyzing the questionnaires received from internal auditors and using Friedman's test, we prioritized the dimensions of competence of internal audit managers in the small, medium and large companies of Iran. The research results show that three dimensions of work experience, academic education, and Mastery of Internal Audit Standards in small, medium and large Iranian companies have a higher priority than other dimensions. In addition, in large companies, intellectual and analytical competencies, expertise in risk management, governance, information technology and quality frameworks have a higher priority than small and medium companies, which can be due to complex operating cycles and processes.

Flood Risk Governance for More Resilience—Reviewing the Special Issue’s Contribution to Existing Insights

There is lively scholarly and societal debate on the need to diversify flood risk management strategies to contribute to more flood resilience. The latter requires dedicated governance strategies related to which relevant insights are currently emerging. However, more systematic theoretical and empirical insights on how to specify and implement governance strategies are still urgently needed. The Special Issue ‘Flood Risk Governance for More Resilience’ has brought together nine contributions by renowned flood risk governance scholars that together help to unpack lessons about these governance strategies. This Special Issue’s editorial introduces the debate on flood risk governance for more resilience and presents the key findings of the individual contributions to the Special Issue. We show that flood risk governance arrangements in specific regions in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Bangladesh, France, and Mexico are gradually evolving. A common denominator is that more horizontal forms of governance are under development in which a more diverse array of public and private actors—including citizens, as well as different sectors, is becoming involved. Efforts are underway to establish connectivity between actors, levels, and sectors, both through regional and international exchanges. While lessons on how to do the former successfully are emerging, we notice that these should still be unpacked more fully. Moreover, there is still a need to establish a more open and inclusive societal debate on societal preferences regarding flood risk protection in which all actors with a stake in flood risk governance processes and outcomes can participate.

A landslide risk index for municipal land use planning in Portugal

In Portugal landslides caused 237 fatalities and >1600 displaced people in the period 1865–2015. Spatial distribution and temporal patterns of slope instability can be related with a complex set of natural and human factors responsible for generating damages. It is essential to develop new methodologies to synthetize risk dimensions to contribute to the landslide risk management at the municipal level.This work proposed a municipal landslide risk index (LRI) considering three risk dimensions: hazard, exposure and physical vulnerability of buildings. The hazard dimension includes the landslide susceptibility performed at the national scale, the probability of weather types associated with landslides and an extreme precipitation susceptibility index. The exposure dimension considered the population density and the number of buildings, whereas the average physical vulnerability of the buildings was computed using four statistical variables from the official census: (i) construction technique and construction materials; (ii) reinforced structure; (iii) number of floors; and (iv) conservation status. Each variable includes different classes that were empirically weighted.After evaluating the three risk dimensions and the LRI, a cluster analysis was performed in order to identify the most important landslide risk drivers in each municipality. Exposure is the main driving force of LRI in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, while the hazard is more relevant in the NW municipalities and the physical vulnerability is the major driving force in the south of the country.This methodological approach contributes to a comprehensive and synthetized knowledge about the landslide risk driving forces within the 278 Portuguese municipalities. In addition, it contributes to the diversification and context-oriented strategies of landslide risk management that still lacks in most of the national-level risk governance processes. Finally, this methodology can be generalized to other geographical contexts, improving the risk management, land use planning and the disaster risk reduction.

A comprehensive approach to understanding flood risk drivers at the municipal level

During the period 1998–2017, floods were responsible for 11% of the loss of life and 23% of the economic loss caused by climate-related and geophysical-related disasters worldwide. An integrated and effective definition of flood risk management strategies therefore still requires synthesized and comprehensive knowledge about the driving forces of flood risk.In this study, 278 Portuguese municipalities are analyzed and classified according to flood hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. After evaluating the three components that describe risk, an index of the flood risk is calculated and a cluster analysis is further performed to understand the role of the risk drivers (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability) in each municipality. The proposed approach therefore provides flood risk indexes on a municipal basis, which are built upon different sources of both cell-by-cell data and an aggregation of municipal-level data that has been statistically validated. Municipalities both in the NW part of the country and along the valleys of major rivers demonstrate a significant superimposition of high levels of exposure and hazard, while vulnerability presents a disperse pattern throughout the country.The results obtained using this approach should contribute to the diversification of flood risk management strategies. This is still lacking in the majority of the national-level flood risk governance processes, namely those strategies that focus on the contingency of daily activities and those aiming at a long-term reduction of the exposure, vulnerability, and hazard components that shape flood disasters.

Harmonization of the human resource audit in the field of international practice

The article explores the possibilities and problems of the process of harmonization of the HR audit in the field of international practice, taking into account the specifics of the market environment of Ukraine. The views of different authors on the problem of HR auditing were investigated. The idea was justified that the harmonization of accounting and financial reporting of economic entities is closely linked with the globalization of economic processes and the economy as a whole on a global scale, the processes of informatisation and digitalization of society, the same as for HR processes. During considering the concept of “HR audit” it should not be forgetting about the legislative component — HR audit is aimed, inter alia, at identifying violations with the law for timely management of weaknesses in the policy of the enterprise in the field of labor. Categorization of observations by impact of importance (high-risk, medium-risk, low-risk — categorization) was investigated; examples for high-risk observations (on the example of: workforce planning, service contract modalities) and medium-risk (on the example of: recruitment process governance, alignment of strategy and work plans, HR functional capacity in Country Offices, talent acquisition in Cos, recruitment processes in Cos, employee on-boarding, training and separation, national non-staff salary scales and pay adjustments, staffing and structure review exercises, social security transfers to service contracts, automation, information and data management, oversight of HR functions in Cos) are given in consideration with agreed actions of HRM and auditor. The ratings (satisfactory, partially satisfactory or unsatisfactory) of an HR audit that are part of the system of evaluating the adequacy of company’s audit risk management, control and governance processes were investigated. The point that the human resource auditing is something that many companies do annually, just as they audit their financial information (despite of their field of activity) is overlined in the article. The harmonization of the HR audit in the field of international practice is a process of unification of methods and principles of auditing in the form of standards is observed.