All major oil companies including IOC, HPCL, Oil India Ltd., EIL and Enron participated in the e-meet, the ninth of its kind, which was held over the weekend.

Emerging trends in the field of internal audit in the wake of a globalised Indian economy came up for detailed discussions at the meet.

Inaugurating the meeting, AK Chakrabarti, deputy CAG and chairman, audit board, threw light on the challenges before the internal audit in the new millennium. Audit has to adopt new systems, new techniques and should focus on the company's activities and its goals, he said.

Regular review meetings and imparting training to the staff were important and also, auditors in the public sector undertakings must be computer literate, Chakrabarti added.

Internal audit today has to playan active and positive role instead of the traditional reactive, policing one, he said. BC Bora, CMD, ONGC, elaborated the reasons and the need for such a meet. "Globalisation of the Indian economy has brought about a sea change in every sphere of business activity in India's corporate sector," he said.

An important development is the growing eminence of corporate governance, Bora said, adding that the most significant element in the corporate governance is the formation of audit committees. Audit professionals would be the harbingers of the new internal audit order in the Indian economy, the ONGC CMD said.

This would herald a philosophy which believes in adding value and facilitating growth rather than "running after elusive skeletons in others cupboards."

I N Chatterjee, director (finance), ONGC, emphasised the role and responsibilities of audit committees. He highlighted the evolution and development of the audit committees in the global scenario and in the Indian context.