CIMMYT hosted staff of the CGIAR Internal Audit Unit (IAU), as part of a professional development workshop organized by Gerardo Carstens and Yunuhe Reyes. The training began in Mexico City on 23 June 2009, 21 auditors and financial specialists from seven CGIAR centers attended workshop sessions at El Batán during 29 June-02 July. In a welcome address to the group, DG Tom Lumpkin discussed the crucial and evolving role of internal auditing in the business world and the importance of it for centers like CIMMYT: “We count on you to give us the ‘bad’ news when we get off course, to oppose us when we’re wrong,” he said. John Fitzsimon, IAU director, noted that “the workshop provided a rare opportunity for auditors and clients of their services, who are spread all over the globe, to get together in one place to exchange views and undertake training to make their work more relevant and useful to the CGIAR centers.” At the conclusion of the workshop he pronounced the event a great success, conveying to the group a challenge to “get ahead of the curve to spot problems centers may encounter and help them head these off.”
