As part of my ongoing engagement in social media, I routinely monitor the media for references to stories involving “internal audit.” The past few weeks it seems that the media has been overrun with headlines involving internal audits. Normally, I would be encouraged with such coverage. However, where recent headlines have been concerned, I suspect the “internal audits” weren’t actually internal audits at all. I believe this happens more often than many people realize, sometimes showing up in the media when internal reports generated by management or “second line-of-defense” oversight functions are mistakenly depicted as “internal audits.”
The distinction is significant: When an investigation is performed by an entity other than by internal auditors, it is important to know whether it was done independently and objectively and in accordance with professional standards.…