Stream of Consciousness
Please note this is an opinion piece. There are some strongly held convictions which I voice here. My involvement in trying to establish internal audit in the Belgian federal government Recently, rumors have been building up again about a centralized internal audit service for the Belgian federal government. I think
Stream of Consciousness
You can find part I of this article here. Phase 2 - Analysis at the level of the area of responsibility (auditable area) Internal audit’s responsibility for the proper application of risk based analysis in the preparation of its audit activities does not end with the multi-year audit planning
Stream of Consciousness
In short Recommendations should never be developed in an ivory tower. Rather, bringing in the auditees during the recommendations phase and challenging them to develop SMART recommendations will enhance the quality of your recommendations. Proper process should counter any issues with objectivity that may arise. Relevant recommendations are hard This
Stream of Consciousness
You can't oursource your core tasks There are a couple of essential tasks you cannot outsource: * If you're about the execute a coup d'etat, you can't bring in mercenaries in key roles or positions and assume you will remain in control; * If
Stream of Consciousness
The opposite of a bad system I recently read this statement, and I can't remember where I read it. It goes "The opposite of a bad system isn't chaos. It's a good system." The statement got me thinking about the fallacy inherent
Stream of Consciousness
Risk based internal audit planning The IIA's standards require us to prepare a risk based internal audit planning. However, if risk assessment and management is not (yet) embedded in your organization, it requires a concerted effort from the auditees to provide you with the relevant information. Given this
Stream of Consciousness
The popularity of audit assessments An audit assessment is like an audit, but not really. It takes less time, costs less and is executed by people referring to themselves as experts in a subject matter. These assessments are becoming rather popular. And that evolution is worrying to a “traditional” internal
Stream of Consciousness
What audit is about Most of us familiar with the (internal) audit profession know what it is about. I’m not rehashing the excellent definition of the Institute for Internal Auditors. As auditors we need to use our independence to objectively gather, analyse and test facts and figures on the
Stream of Consciousness
It’s not (just) about independence The IIA recently released a paper on this IPPF on independence and objectivity. Independence is sometimes used by internal auditors or organizations executing the internal audit function as an argument to motivate a distance from the organization they’re auditing. And while independence is
Stream of Consciousness
Context There is discussion ongoing at the Belgian federal government level about the (minimal) independence requirements for internal auditors active the Belgian federal administrations. I want to weigh in with some thoughts on that. This article is partly based on a recent position paper by the IIA on independence and