November 2011

November 17, 2011

Five Signals That Your Last Internal Audit Hit a Home Run

I think internal auditing can be one of the most rewarding jobs on the planet. But let’s face it — no matter how good you are at your job, it’s not likely that people drop by your office each day just to tell you how much they loved your ​last audit. Still, there are unmistakable signs that your last audit was a big success. Here are a few of my favorite indicators that an internal audit report hit a home run.

  1. Your audit committee specifically asks for you to brief the members on your last audit.
    At most organizations, the chief audit executive regularly attends audit committee meetings, but other auditors are less likely to attend the meetings. If
November 9, 2011

Should Internal Audit Be More Transparent?

I talk to quite a few members of the press in my travels for The Institute, and most of the time the questions are fairly similar. Recently, though, I was asked a new question: “Are you concerned that there is n​ot enough transparency in internal auditing?” The reporter’s concern was that, with a few exceptions, corporate internal audit reports are not available to shareholders or other outside stakeholders. ​

My personal belief is that our role is to provide support to key stakeholders within the organization and that our reports should not be routinely available to the public. I’m not suggesting that it’s not appropriate for government internal audit reports to be publicly available.…