Skip to main content
Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Glossary

Internal control: the moves that secure an organisation

Internal control is the set of arrangements that make an operation reliable: segregation of duties, authorisation, traceability, reconciliation. It acts before any audit, every day. A solid arrangement is recognised by its ability to surface a gap early.

The arrangement that acts daily

Internal control gathers the procedures that secure an operation before it takes effect: whoever orders is not whoever pays, every commitment carries an identified authorisation, every entry leaves a trace, and balances are periodically reconciled against an independent source. A solid arrangement is recognised by its ability to surface an anomaly early.

  • Segregation of duties: ordering, authorising, paying, recording
  • Every commitment carries an identified authorisation
  • Periodic reconciliations surface discrepancies early

The four basic principles

The Finance and OHADA Compliance certificate has candidates build a complete arrangement over a purchasing cycle: request, approval, receipt, invoice, payment. The Business Law and OHADA Compliance programme illuminates the legal side, with delegations of authority and how they are formalised.

Segregation of duties

Ordering, authorising, paying and recording belong to different people: the most effective principle in the arrangement.

Authorisation

Every commitment carries the name of whoever approved it, within the limit of a written delegation.

Traceability

A transaction can be reconstructed end to end, document by document, even two years later.

Reconciliation

Balances are periodically held against an independent source: bank, stock count, supplier statement.

Programmes that put it in place

2 catalogue programmes put “Internal control” to work: 198 credits and 1980 taught hours in total. The official rule holds throughout — one credit stands for 25 hours of work, 10 of them taught. Every line below is recomputed from the programme page: level, duration, credits, taught volume and fees in Guinean francs appear exactly as filed in the official catalogue.

ProgrammeLevelDurationVolumeFees
Certificate in OHADA Finance and ComplianceProfessional certification6 months18 credits · 180 taught hours4 200 000 GNF in total
Business Law and OHADA ComplianceBachelor's degree3 years180 credits · 1800 taught hours5 200 000 GNF per year
Internal control: the moves that secure an organisation — Glossary | IHETC — IHETC