Sumer NI has promoted Barney Conway and Eimer Proctor to associate partner and Glen Speers to audit manager, Business First reported, a set of moves that matters broadly because it shows a Belfast firm promoting from within, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because Conway will oversee internal audit for public sector bodies across the island of Ireland, according to Business First, work covered by internal audit standards that changed in April 2025.

Sumer NI is, according to earlier reporting by Business Eye, a Belfast audit and accountancy firm within Sumer Group formed in July 2024 when the Belfast office of ASM joined the group. Business First reported that Conway has almost a decade at the firm and a degree in accounting from Queen’s University Belfast, Proctor is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland advising owner-managed businesses, and Speers joined as a trainee in 2020 and holds an Ulster University accounting degree.

Business First reported that Conway has a background in internal audit, risk management and assurance across the public and private sectors, and will mentor junior colleagues in the internal audit team. It reported that Speers has worked with SMEs, housing associations and public sector organisations, preparing statutory and consolidated accounts.

The standards behind that work have changed. Global Internal Audit Standards took effect in the UK public sector on 1 April 2025, according to the Application Note issued by the relevant standard setters, which include the Department of Finance Northern Ireland.

The same note says it applies to outsourced internal audit providers serving the UK public sector, which would cover a firm delivering internal audit services to public sector clients, as Business First says Conway’s team does. Northumberland County Council’s conformance summary records that the standards replaced the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards from that date.

Business First’s account of Speers’s path from trainee in 2020 to audit manager shows the progression the firm offers.

For the sector, promotions tied to public sector internal audit show firms investing in people as standards and expectations for assurance work rise.