MUHAMMAD SARIM AKHTAR

Mobile: +965-97420225
Office: +965-1881111 Ext: 3159 Fax: +965-24847244
sarim75@yahoo.com

CAREER OBJECTIVE
To obtain a managerial level technical position in the Internal Audit department which utilizes my
unique set of expertise in the identification of operational risks, control weaknesses and fraudulent
activities with an opportunity for performance based career enhancement.

CAREER SUMMARY
Have a professional experience of around 10 years in the field of risk based operational auditing
specifically related to retail and manufacturing industries, information systems and fraud
investigation which is supplemented by professional qualifications (CISA, CIA*, MCSE, MBA*, MCS,
BE) from prestigious institutions. Most significant achievement was a procurement audit and
investigation of a $6 million fraud that lead to significant control improvements, cost savings and
terminations of people involved.

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Auditing:
 Managed entire audits from planning, fieldwork and closing the report with the auditee.
 Assessed business operational risks & controls related to procurement, sales, inventory,
logistics, cash, payroll and contracts.
 Audited retail, manufacturing, automotive, FMCG and transportation businesses.
 Assessed IT risks & controls against ISO-17799 and COBIT standards for governance and
assurance around IT operations, network services and ERP applications.
 Audited SAP, Kerridge, Sage, enterprise user access and retail banking application for
configuration, data recovery capabilities and operations integrity.

Investigations:
 Applied computer forensics for electronic discovery and data mining.
 Retrieved deleted files and traced anonymous emails.
 Extracted emails, document passwords and text from images.
 Employed Live CD tools to access and retrieve data from live computers or passive hard disks.
 Organized, planned and conducted interviews with alternate strategies and questions.
 Prepared case files for litigation.

Information Technology:
 ACL – analyzed data having multi million records with automation enabled through scripting.
 Business Objects – utilized its integrity with SAP, Kerridge, Faims and Sage for data extraction.
 TeamMate – utilized to electronically manage audit working papers.
 SQL – utilized this standard querying language to extract data from different modern databases.
 Developed software using VC+, Java, Visual Basic and C programming languages.
 Developed software for ATM & POS machines, SWIFT network and mobile & telephone banking.

Management and work methodology:

 Managed teams of 2 to 3 staff for auditing, investigating and developing software applications.
 Developed a healthy and functional relationship with the senior management.
 Planned and organized soundly to enable delivery of multiple assignments timely.
 Demonstrated competence to implement innovative ideas and get the job done.
 Identified problems and resolved them by keeping things simple, short and targeted.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE - DETAILS

Alghanim Industries – (Kuwait) __ still working since May, 2005
Designation: Manager, Internal Audit Role: Auditing IT & Operations and Fraud Investigation
Company Profile: Alghanim Industries, named one of Hewitt Associates’ Best Employers in Middle
East 2009, is one of the largest and privately-owned companies in the Gulf region, based in
 sarim75@yahoo.com
MUHAMMAD SARIM AKHTAR’s Resume (+965) 97420225

Kuwait. This multi-billion dollar conglomerate has operations in 40 countries with more than 30
businesses involved in Retail, Wholesale, Manufacturing, Insurance, etc. [ http://www.alghanim.com ]
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Responsibilities: Managing entire audits of Information Systems, operational risks and controls while
coordinating with senior management. Providing feedback on various policies and procedures.
Investigating for thefts and fraudulent activities.
Achievements: Applied digital forensic techniques to investigate fraudulent activities ($6 mil) that
resulted in significant cost savings and criminal proceedings along with terminations of concerned
people. Successfully identified 5 Frauds during routine audit fieldwork and got implemented over 150
operational & IT control recommendations.

Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited – (Pakistan) Nov 2003 – May 2005

Designation: Manager, Audit & Systems Role: Information Systems Auditing & Security
Company Profile: A Pakistani Bank with over 100 countrywide and offshore online-branches,
providing facilities such as Consumer/Corporate Banking, Trade Finance, ATM & Debit cards, online
Fund transfers, Internet & Telephone banking, etc. [ http://www.hmb.com.pk ]
Responsibilities: Auditing information systems, redefining & supervising system user access,
reviewing & commenting on new technologies and systems, analyzing data, developing reports and
data extraction utilities and developing template documents for operations.
Achievements: Successfully reengineered and managed user access, developed bank account
opening forms and developed efficient reports and utilities to extract data from system and SWIFT.

PIBAS Inc. – (Pakistan) ______________ Aug 2000 – Sep 2003

Designation: Project Leader and Sr. Programmer Analyst Role: Software Development
Company Profile: With offices in Canada, Pakistan, UAE and Nepal, PIBAS is well known in the small-
medium size Banking sector for its banking software solutions. [ http://www.pibas.com ]
Responsibilities: Leading the development and deployment of software applications using various
programming languages, supervising the project to get ISO 9001:2000 certification and exploring new
technologies for enhancing banking solutions.
Achievements: Developed mobile banking solution using WAP in 2005 when it was first introduced,
successfully got the company certified in ISO 9001:2000 and developed universal interface applications
for ATM, POS, SWIFT and mobile & telephone banking.

EDUCATION
DEGREE YEAR INSTITUTE GRADE
*MBA – Masters in Business Admin.(MIS) 2005 I.B.A. Karachi Half completed
MCS – Master of Computer Science 2000 Karachi University A
BE – Bachelor of Engineering 1998 N.E.D. University A

CERTIFICATIONS
 C.I.S.A. (Certified Information System Auditor) – 2002.
 *C.I.A. parts I,II,IV (Certified Internal Auditor) – 2006.
 M.C.S.E. / M.C.P.+I (Microsoft Certified System Engineer) – 1998.

TRAININGS / SEMINARS
 Business Objects – introductory level training – 2010
 NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) – awareness course – 2009
 ACL (Audit Command Language) – advance level training on Scripting – 2008.
 ACL - Audit Exchange seminar – 2008.
 Frauds – Deloitte (Kuwait) seminar – 2006.
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 sarim75@yahoo.com
MUHAMMAD SARIM AKHTAR’s Resume (+965) 97420225

 CISCO training on router administration and configuration – 2003.

 S.W.I.F.T. (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) training – 2002.
 Computer networking training at Micro Innovations & Technology – 1997.

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