Internal auditors spend a significant amount of time working with evidence.

Documents are reviewed. Controls are tested. Processes are examined. Data is analysed.

But some of the most valuable information gathered during an audit does not come from a spreadsheet or system.

It comes from people.

And that creates a very different challenge.

What happens when the person you are interviewing gives an incomplete answer? Changes their explanation? Avoids a question? Appears uncomfortable? Provides far more information than you asked for? Or gives an answer that sounds perfectly reasonable but does not quite align with the evidence you already have?

Knowing what question to ask next can become just as important as knowing what question to ask first.

That is why practical internal audit training should not focus only on technical knowledge. Developing stronger interviewing, questioning and communication skills can help auditors gather better information, challenge inconsistencies and approach difficult conversations with greater confidence.

The Interviewing Skills to Detect Deception for Internal Auditors course at Definitive Conference Centre on 19 October 2026 is designed around these challenges.

The one-day programme covers interview preparation, questioning techniques, dealing with resistance, verbal and non-verbal communication, statement analysis, suspect interviews, possible interview contaminants, artificial intelligence and practical case studies.

Delegates can also earn 8 CPD hours, making the course a practical option for auditors looking for professional development that can be applied directly to their work.

But why invest in this kind of internal auditor training when interviewing may already form part of your everyday role?

Because conducting an interview and conducting an effective audit interview are not necessarily the same thing.

The Real Challenge Is Not Asking Questions. It Is Knowing What to Do With the Answers.

Most experienced auditors already know how to ask questions.

The difficulty often begins after the first answer.

Imagine asking:

“Who approved this transaction?”

The response is:

“That would normally go through the finance manager.”

At first glance, the question appears to have been answered.

Except it has not.

You asked who approved this transaction.

The person explained what normally happens.

That distinction matters.

An auditor concentrating mainly on completing a prepared list of questions may simply move on.

Someone with stronger interview techniques may recognise the gap immediately and explore it further.

That might mean asking:

Who specifically approved this transaction?

When was it approved?

How was the approval communicated?

Is there documentation showing that approval?

Was the normal process followed on this occasion?

The purpose of stronger interviewing skills is therefore not to turn internal auditors into human lie detectors.

It is to become better at recognising when an answer requires further investigation.

1. People Do Not Always Tell You Everything the First Time

One of the realities of internal auditing is that people may be reluctant to provide information.

Sometimes this is deliberate.

Sometimes it is not.

An employee may be nervous.

A manager may become defensive about a control weakness.

Someone may worry that admitting a mistake could affect their position.

Another person may simply misunderstand what the auditor is asking.

There may also be situations involving genuine evasiveness, concealment or deception.

The challenge for the auditor is determining when further questioning is justified without immediately jumping to conclusions.

This is where forensic interviewing and structured questioning techniques can become particularly valuable.

The course includes preparation techniques, different question types, approaches for dealing with resistance, statement analysis and methods for following up when something in an interview requires closer examination.

Rather than simply accepting every response at face value or becoming unnecessarily confrontational, auditors can learn to probe more methodically.

The result is not simply about detecting a lie.

The real value is obtaining better information.

2. Deception Detection Is More Than Watching Body Language

One of the biggest dangers in this area is assuming that someone’s behaviour proves dishonesty.

It does not.

Someone looking uncomfortable does not automatically mean that person is lying.

A nervous employee may avoid eye contact.

A confident person may maintain eye contact while still providing inaccurate information.

Stress, personality, culture, hierarchy and the circumstances surrounding an interview can all affect behaviour.

That is why useful deception detection training needs to go deeper than looking for one supposedly suspicious gesture.

Auditors need to consider information in context.

That can include:

• what the person says;
• how their explanation develops;
• whether their account changes;
• whether important information is missing;
• how their statement compares with other evidence;
• whether answers remain consistent; and
• what additional questions should be asked.

The purpose is not to conclude:

“They behaved strangely, therefore they are lying.”

A much stronger professional response is:

“Something in this answer deserves further investigation. What evidence or follow-up question will help me understand it?”

That distinction matters enormously.

3. Professional Scepticism Has to Work in Real Conversations

Professional scepticism sounds straightforward when written into an audit methodology.

Applying it while sitting across the table from another person can be considerably harder.

An auditor may need to say:

“Can you explain that again?”

“That differs from the information we received earlier. Can you help me understand why?”

“What happened next?”

“Who else was involved?”

“What documentation would support that?”

Those questions can feel uncomfortable when speaking to senior managers, longstanding employees or someone who has already become defensive.

This is why good internal audit training should help auditors develop both technical judgement and the confidence to use that judgement in real conversations.

Knowing that you should challenge an answer is one thing.

Knowing how to challenge it professionally is another.

4. Poor Interviews Can Create Poor Audit Evidence

There is a deceptively simple risk in audit interviewing:

You can ask the wrong question and receive a perfectly accurate answer.

If a question is too broad, leading, confusing or poorly timed, the information gathered may be far less useful than it appears.

An interviewer can also unintentionally influence a response.

This is why good interview techniques matter.

The course covers different types of questions, interview preparation, popular interviewing methods and potential interview contaminants.

These skills can help an auditor:

• establish clearer sequences of events;
• distinguish assumptions from firsthand knowledge;
• identify missing information;
• compare verbal statements with documentary evidence;
• recognise inconsistencies requiring further testing;
• obtain more specific answers; and
• reduce the risk of unintentionally steering an interviewee.

The result is not simply a smoother conversation.

It can contribute to better-quality audit evidence.

5. Resistance Is Part of the Job

Few auditors enjoy interviewing someone who clearly does not want to be interviewed.

You may encounter defensiveness:

“Why are you asking me this?”

Minimal answers:

“I don’t remember.”

Deflection:

“You should really speak to Finance about that.”

Or frustration:

“We’ve already explained this.”

The temptation is either to push too hard or retreat too quickly.

Neither is ideal.

One of the practical areas included in the course is dealing with resistance, together with questioning techniques and approaches to more difficult interviews.

The goal is not aggression.

Good interviewing often depends on remaining calm enough to notice what is being said, what has not been said and where the conversation needs to go next.

That makes this kind of internal auditor training useful beyond fraud investigations alone.

The same skills can be applied during process walkthroughs, control discussions, compliance reviews and ordinary audit interviews.

6. Fraud and Misconduct Often Involve Human Clues

Technology has transformed internal auditing.

Auditors now have access to advanced analytics, automated testing, digital records, continuous monitoring and increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence tools.

Yet fraud and misconduct still involve people.

A concern may first emerge because someone reports unusual behaviour.

An auditor follows it up.

An explanation does not correspond with the records.

Another employee provides a different version of events.

A routine interview suddenly reveals something requiring additional investigation.

Technical audit skills may show you where something appears wrong.

Strong forensic interviewing skills may help you understand why.

That does not mean behaviour alone proves wrongdoing.

It means that the human side of an investigation remains important.

7. AI Makes Human Judgement More Important, Not Less

The course also explores the question:

Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Ally?

It is an increasingly relevant topic for internal auditors.

AI can help analyse information, organise evidence, identify patterns and improve efficiency.

But technology does not remove the need for human judgement.

An auditor still needs to evaluate context.

They still need to listen carefully.

They need to recognise when two pieces of information conflict.

They need to decide which question should come next.

And they need to communicate with people who may be cooperative, uncertain, defensive or deliberately evasive.

The stronger those human capabilities become, the more effectively auditors can use technology alongside them.

8. Confidence Can Change the Quality of an Interview

One of the less obvious benefits of professional development for internal auditors is confidence.

An auditor may notice that something does not sound right but hesitate to challenge it.

They may worry about offending someone.

They may be interviewing an executive several levels above them.

Or they may simply not know how to phrase the next question.

That uncertainty can cause useful lines of enquiry to disappear.

Structured internal audit training can help provide a framework for these situations.

Instead of thinking:

“I have a strange feeling about this answer.”

You can begin thinking:

“There is an inconsistency here. I know how to explore it professionally.”

That is a far more useful form of confidence.

Not confidence based on believing you can always tell when somebody is lying.

Confidence based on knowing how to investigate what you do not yet understand.

9. Communication Is a Core Internal Audit Skill

Interviewing is sometimes described as a soft skill.

That description can underestimate how important it actually is.

Consider how many internal audit activities rely on communication:

• opening meetings;
• process walkthroughs;
• employee interviews;
• control discussions;
• evidence requests;
• management responses;
• findings;
• recommendations;
• closing meetings; and
• communication with senior management and audit committees.

The technical audit work may be excellent.

But if an auditor cannot obtain, challenge and communicate information effectively, the value of that technical work can become limited.

That is why internal auditor training should include communication and interviewing alongside technical competencies.

10. Internal Audit Training Should Give You Skills You Can Actually Use

Professional development competes with everything else on an auditor’s calendar.

Training therefore needs to earn its place.

The Interviewing Skills to Detect Deception for Internal Auditors course is delivered over one day and provides 8 CPD hours.

The programme is suitable for different levels of internal audit experience, including introductory auditors, practising internal auditors and senior or supervisory internal auditors.

But the value is not simply collecting CPD hours.

The better question when comparing CPD courses for internal auditors is:

Will I actually use what I learn when I return to work?

Interviewing is something many auditors do repeatedly.

Every future conversation becomes an opportunity to apply:

• stronger questioning techniques;
• better preparation;
• improved listening;
• structured follow-up questions;
• more confident professional scepticism;
• methods for handling resistance; and
• better assessment of the information being provided.

That gives this type of internal audit training value beyond the training room.

The Question Is Not Whether You Interview People. It Is How Much You Learn From Them.

For most internal auditors, interviewing is already part of the job.

So the real investment decision is not:

“Do I need interviewing skills?”

You are already using them.

The better question is:

“Could I be getting more reliable, detailed and useful information from the interviews I already conduct?”

If you have ever left an interview thinking:

I should have followed up on that.

Something about that explanation didn’t make sense.

I knew they were avoiding the question, but I wasn’t sure how to challenge it.

I only realised afterwards what I should have asked.

Then there is room to sharpen the skill.

And that is where targeted professional development for internal auditors can offer genuine value.

Internal Audit Training Near OR Tambo Airport

The course takes place at Definitive Conference Centre in Harmelia, Germiston, approximately 4 km from OR Tambo International Airport.

The location provides convenient access for delegates travelling from Johannesburg, Pretoria and other parts of Gauteng, as well as professionals flying into the city.

For businesses looking at conference venues near OR Tambo Airport, conference venues in Gauteng or a conveniently located conference venue Johannesburg professionals can reach without travelling deep into the city, Definitive Conference Centre offers a practical training location.

The quieter conference environment also gives delegates the opportunity to step away from everyday office distractions and focus on the training.

Who Should Attend This Course?

This internal audit training course may be particularly useful if you:

• regularly conduct interviews, walkthroughs or investigations;
• sometimes struggle to obtain clear answers;
• need to challenge managers or senior employees professionally;
• want to improve your follow-up questioning;
• encounter defensive or resistant interviewees;
• work with fraud, misconduct or control-failure investigations;
• want to strengthen professional scepticism;
• want to develop stronger interview techniques;
• are interested in deception detection training;
• are looking for practical CPD courses for internal auditors; or
• want greater confidence when difficult conversations become part of an audit.

The course is designed for auditors ranging from introductory through practising and senior or supervisory levels.

Invest in the Questions That Get You Closer to the Truth

Internal audit is built on evidence.

But evidence does not always arrive neatly packaged in a report, spreadsheet or transaction history.

Sometimes it is hidden inside an incomplete explanation.

Sometimes it appears in an inconsistency.

Sometimes it takes one additional question to uncover something that deserves further investigation.

Learning how to ask that question is worth investing in.

The Interviewing Skills to Detect Deception for Internal Auditors course provides practical internal audit training focused on improving the way auditors prepare, question, listen, challenge and evaluate information during interviews.

Course Details

Date: Monday, 19 October 2026
Duration: 1 Day
CPD Hours: 8
Presenter: Mario Fazekas
Course Fee: R4,034
Venue: Definitive Conference Centre, Harmelia, Germiston, Gauteng

If stronger interviewing skills could help you gather better information, challenge inconsistencies with greater confidence and conduct more effective audit conversations, this is one professional skill worth developing.

Organizer: Leadership Academy

To join the event, click below: