Carrying out internal audit activities

The Internal Audit Service is guided in its work by the following documents:

• The legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• The Charter of the Company;
• The Code of Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors;
• The International Professional Standards for Internal Auditing, the main principles of the professional practice of internal auditing of the Institute of Internal Auditors;
• The Regulations of the Internal Audit Service, the Internal Audit Manual, and other applicable internal regulatory documents of the Company.

The activities of the Internal Audit Service are carried out in accordance with the Annual Audit Plan approved by the Board of Directors.

The Internal Audit Service uses TeamMate+, specialized software, to plan and conduct assurance and consulting engagements, store data on them, and follow up on the status of implementation of the recommendations of the Internal Audit Service.

The Internal Audit Service continuously works on the improvement of the approach and methodology of performing internal audit engagements. The Internal Audit Service started adhering to an agile approach to perform its responsibilities in a more effective and efficient manner. Risk-based selection of audit scope and requirement of root cause analysis enhance the quality of the audit observations and recommendations. Also, the template of the audit report, its content, and the style of writing have been updated to make audit reports more comprehensive to readers.

Conformance to the Standards

In November 2022, the Internal Audit Service of Air Astana successfully passed an external assessment for conformance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and the Code of Ethics developed by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

This assessment was carried out by the KPMG Tax and Advisory LLP, which confirmed full conformance of the Internal Audit Service with International standards for the professional practice of internal auditing and the Code of Ethics, and highlighted the following positive aspects of the IAS’s activities:

1. Continuous improvement of the IAS employees’ skills;
2. Full implementation of the Annual Audit Plan;
3. Well-structured audit working documentation, which contains sufficient information and qualitatively structured audit reports;
4. Successful use of specialized software to automate audit procedures.

This assessment confirms the effective and efficient work of the Internal Audit Service and its effective interaction with the Company's departments.