Head: Forensic Audit at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)

Job Description    

• Lead and manage proactive and reactive forensic audits and investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption, financial misconduct, procurement irregularities, and conflicts of interest. The role aims to protect DBSA’s integrity and ensure accountability through evidence-based reporting and preventative controls.

Key Responsibilities    

• Strategic Focus
• Develop and lead the strategic direction of the Forensic Audit function, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and risk mitigation priorities.
• Establish and continuously improve investigation frameworks, methodologies, and protocols.
• Champion organisation-wide fraud awareness and anti-corruption initiatives, ensuring broad engagement and impact.
• Oversee the design and delivery of training programs tailored to different business units and risk profiles.

Investigation Management

• Oversee and guide the full lifecycle of forensic audits and investigations, from initial allegation to resolution.
• Ensure investigations are conducted ethically and in compliance with legal, regulatory, and internal standards.
• Risk Mitigation and Internal Controls
• Provide strategic oversight in identifying systemic risks and control failures uncovered during investigations.
• Lead the development of organisation-wide preventive measures and internal control enhancements.
• Collaborate with senior leadership and risk management teams to embed forensic insights into enterprise risk strategies.
• Monitor the effectiveness of implemented controls and recommend further improvements as needed.

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary liaison for forensic matters with Exco, Audit Committee, Board, and external stakeholders.
• Engage with law enforcement, legal advisors, and regulatory bodies to support investigations and legal processes.
• Represent the organisation in disciplinary hearings and court proceedings, ensuring procedural fairness and reputational protection.
• Reporting and Governance
• Review and approve comprehensive reports with findings and recommendations for disciplinary, civil, or criminal proceedings.
• Present high-level forensic findings and strategic insights to governance bodies, ensuring clarity and impact.
• Ensure timely and accurate quarterly reporting to the Social and Ethics Committee (SEC) and Audit and Risk Committee (ARC).
• Ensure forensic case management systems are robust, secure, and aligned with governance standards.
• Monitor compliance with forensic policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements, and drive continuous improvement.

People Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning to maximise individual and collective potential.
• Drive talent development initiatives, including coaching, performance management, and career pathing, to build and retain a skilled and motivated team.
• Provide direction and management to the Division, to enable strategy execution.
• Attract, retain, develop talent and ensure succession planning and sufficient capacity and capability in all critical function 
• Promote DBSA values and a culture of high performance through implementing performance management in line with the planned strategic objectives, goals, quality standards and agreed key performance measures using sound performance management principles.
• Contribute to building synergies & cooperation across functions in the DBSA.
• Live the DBSA values.

Key Measurements of Outputs

• Accuracy and quality of forensic investigations and audit findings
• Average time taken to complete investigations and audits from initiation to closure
• Quality, clarity, and impact of forensic reports and presentations submitted to governance bodies
• Number of systemic risks and control failures identified and addressed through investigations
• Effectiveness of implemented internal controls (measured through follow-up audits or control testing)
• Compliance rate with forensic policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements
• Number and quality of fraud awareness and anti-corruption initiatives delivered across the organisation
• Management of team performance, talent development, and succession planning using the performance management systems, supporting diversity strategies and initiatives as well.
• Expertise & Technical Competencies    

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements

• Postgraduate degree in Accounting or Auditing.
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and/or Certified Commercial Forensic Practitioner (FP) SA.
• Membership with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) or the Institute of Commercial Forensic Practitioners (ICFP) (mandatory).

Desirable Requirements

• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) certification is advantageous.
• Legal postgraduate degree is advantageous.
• Experience

Minimum Experience

• Minimum of 12 years’ experience in forensic auditing and investigations, with at least 5 years in a management role.
• Expert knowledge of relevant legislation, including the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Municipal Finance
• Management Act (MFMA), Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA), Consumer Protection
• Act (CPA), Public Audit Act (PAA), Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), Protected Disclosures Act
• (PDA), and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
• Knowledge of the Municipal Systems Act (MSA) and National Treasury Regulations including Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
• Knowledge of the South African legal framework.
• Strong understanding of fraud typologies, forensic methodologies, evidence gathering, and internal control frameworks.
• Proven track record in managing complex forensic cases and leading both internal and external investigation teams.
• Demonstrable experience writing comprehensive forensic reports and presenting these to EXCO/Board Audit Committee level and defending findings at meetings with senior management stakeholders.
• Experience in financial statement analysis and conducting forensic risk assessments.
• Experience in identifying control gaps during investigations and recommending mitigating measures.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365 suite, including advanced Excel skills.

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge of SAP or other ERP systems will be an advantage.
• Previous experience in a banking or development finance environment will be an advantage.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Audit

• Serves as a subject matter expert and/or technical point of contact for quality assurance activities in the organisation.
• Stays current with and shapes the evolution of QA by participating in standards committees.
• Performs highly complex financial and/or management audits in all areas of the organisation to identify, resolve, and/or recommend solutions to management control problems, standards, and test the financial and budgetary controls, documenting any weaknesses.
• Outlines task schedules which comply with general audit programme guidelines.
• Knowledge and experience to serve as a project leader in working with external auditors, providing them with the required financial information, and collaborating widely to facilitate change.
• Ensures that correct procedures are followed, and that documentation is prepared in accordance with international best practice standards.
• Provides ad-hoc advice to help departments achieve compliance.

Negotiation

• Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.
• Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.
• Is able to take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.
• Is able to place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.

Reporting

• Designs, reviews and improves reporting processes and provides guidance.
• Leads production of complex environment reports, takes an editorial role, determines content and level of detail, and ensures consistent messaging and branding.

Detailed Orientation

• Quickly identifies relevant and irrelevant information to support accurate decision making.
• Maps out all the logistics and details of a situation to ensure smooth and flawless implementation.
• Consistently identifies all relevant details that are not obvious in complex situations.
• Requires the highest standards for accuracy and quality for their work.
• Establishes processes to ensure accuracy and quality of services delivered by the team.

Solution Focused

• Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory.
• Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation.

Risk Management Policies and Procedures

• Drives integration and standardisation of risk management processes across the organisation
• Advises on the application of the organisation’s risk management policies, industry best practices and constructs organisation guidelines
• Analyses trends in risk management and internal control, evaluates implications, defines and implements organisation-wide response.
• The KPA’s, competencies and relationships listed in this document, is not exhaustive and the incumbent will be expected to undertake additional duties within their capacity to meet the needs of business and/or the business unit.

Required Personal Attributes    

LEADERSHIP/BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES

• Strategic and Innovative Thinking
• Understands connections and trade-offs of strategic choices to evaluate which ideas are practical and possible by considering business and/or scientific implications.
• Develops innovative business and/or customer solutions that shape industry practices.

Leading and Empowering Others

• Identifies long-term goals for the team and communicates them to team members, ensuring their buy in.
• Sets a good example by personally exercising desired behaviour, acts on values and beliefs.
• Communicates a vision for the team and future success that inspires team members.
• After assessing others’ competence, one delegates full authority and responsibility to others to do a task in their own way.
• Ensures that competent employees are given opportunities to further their careers.

Leading and Managing Change

• Anticipates the need for change when not obvious and influences others to gain support.
• Builds sustainable business and organisational capacity to embrace and thrive on change.
• Re-engineers and aligns structures, processes and practices to support and sustain the desired change.

Teamwork and Cooperation

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts.
• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
• Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.

Decisiveness

• Makes timely decisions about complex issues even when some information is missing.
• Makes decisions and stands by them even when they are controversial or unpopular.
• Grasps critical business opportunities when they arise by making timely decisions.

Developing Others

• Gives specific positive or mixed feedback for developmental purposes.
• Gives negative feedback in behavioural rather than personal terms.
• Reassures and/or expresses positive expectations for future performance when giving corrective feedback.
• Gives individualised suggestions to individuals for their improvement.

Driving Delivery of Results

• Identifies and implements a business opportunity that will have a long-term impact on the business (which may include the organisation’s reputation or brand image).
• Monitors progress and adapts the plan if necessary to ensure optimal benefit to the business.
• Makes decisions, sets priorities, or chooses goals on the basis of inputs and outputs: makes explicit considerations of potential profit, return on investment, or cost benefit analysis.
• Based on the cost-benefit analysis, makes decisions of entrepreneurial risk nature.