History
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We will introduce the history, topics, and future prospects
of the 29 departments at the head office and 10 branches nationwide as of fiscal year 2024.＊The names of corporations, foundations, incorporated associations, national university corporations, etc. have been omitted.
Internal Auditing Div.
The Internal Auditing Div. was newly established in 2002 as a specialized department under the direct control of the president, and as a department that coordinates internal controls related to corporate governance, it began activities to enhance internal audits with the aim of ensuring the stable growth and soundness of the company.
Our company is the only subsidiary in the Hitachi High-Tech Group to have an Internal Auditing Div., which plays a role in corporate governance. The Internal Auditing Div. is an organization that reports directly to the president and is not part of any other division, as it needs to maintain its independence in order to conduct objective audits and controls without being influenced by other divisions.
| Business | Content |
|---|---|
| 1.Internal audit operations | This is carried out for each department and branch office on a roughly three-year cycle. Interviews and documentary evidence are used to check whether operations are being carried out in line with company policy and in compliance with laws and company regulations. |
| 2.Internal Control Operations | The J-SOX Committee Secretariat is responsible for the following activities related to internal financial controls: (1) promotion plans and progress reports, (2) planning work (accounting categories, business processes), and (3) effectiveness assessments (document maintenance, test assessments). |
| 3.Audit & Supervisory Board Member staff duties | We support the audit & supervisory board member in their management checks. |
Internal Auditing Div. members (as of July 2024)
The new coronavirus (COVID-19) that raged around the world in 2020 brought about major changes in the economy, society, and our values. The same is true of the internal audit and internal control operations of our company's Internal Auditing Div., and we have also reviewed operations with consideration for work style reform.
The company moved from face-to-face audits to a hybrid system of remote and on-site audits. Although this meant that the company was now at risk of not being able to directly confirm the two elements of the “San-Gen” principle (the principle of seeing the actual site and the actual product and making decisions based on reality), which is the basis of auditing, the quality of the audits was not compromised.
Direct confirmation was reinstated in May 2023 after the new coronavirus was reclassified as a Category 5 infectious disease. However, interviews and other procedures that can be carried out without compromising quality are continuing to be conducted remotely to take advantage of the benefits of being able to do so without being restricted by location.
As part of efforts to reform working practices, with the aim of reducing the burden on the departments being audited, the frequency of internal audits was reviewed from fiscal 2024. In order to ensure that the decrease in the frequency of audits does not lead to an increase in risk, efforts to promote improvements in line with the plan, such as follow-up one year later, are being continued.
As a measure to prevent infection, we switched all documents that had previously been submitted on paper, such as control evaluation sheets, test result record sheets, switching to electronic data has helped to streamline operations and reduce the burden of filing in both the control department and the Internal Auditing Div., and has contributed to a reduction in paper resources. This initiative has continued even after the new coronavirus was reclassified as a Category 5 infectious disease.
In recent years, there have been a number of cases of corporate misconduct and scandals, and the importance of internal audits has been reaffirmed. In addition to the previous departmental audits, we will also promote new initiatives such as the introduction of "theme audits " that are conducted across the organization, focusing on a certain management area or process (theme). In considering this, we will also research the approaches of other companies with different corporate cultures, including benchmarking against companies outside the Hitachi Group.
In addition, in order to quickly grasp the risks that have become even more complex due to digitization and provide even more value to the organization, we will promote digital transformation (DX) that utilizes analytics, RPA, AI, etc., and build a system that can always achieve a high level of balance between improving audit quality and reducing the burden of work.
Digital technology should also be used in internal control operations, and the operation and monitoring of internal controls should be automated to the greatest extent possible. In addition to reducing costs and promoting efficiency through automation, this will also contribute to reducing the pressure on internal control functions to effectively manage risks and opportunities.
