Internal audit is an objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organisation’s operations. It can help an organisation accomplish its strategic objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.
Internal audit is an audit service that evaluates the design, effectiveness, efficiency and adequacy of internal controls and offers recommendations for improvement, with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of operations and the reliability of financial statements and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations. Internal audit services can be performed as one-off limited audits in specified areas of the business, or as regular audits in line with a risk-based audit plan. In delivering this service, planning can be done on a co-sourcing basis together with the internal audit specialists within the business, or, if the business does not have its own internal audit unit, the service can be outsourced.
A quality assurance review is the service of assessing internal audit units for conformance with the International Standards for Internal Auditing and benchmarking them against best practice, and providing an opinion.
In this context companies need to • establish an effective and high-performing internal audit unit • provide feedback on the expectations of the audit committee and management from internal audit • have a quality assurance review of their internal audit unit carried out at least once every five years for conformance with the International Standards for Internal Auditing. The quality assurance review services we offer our clients cover the assessment of working papers, the internal audit charter, procedures, risk assessment and planning documents, the job descriptions of internal audit staff and human resources practices such as performance appraisal and training, and the methodology and reporting used during audits. In the review, existing practices are compared with best practice and with the internal audit units of similar organisations.
Internal Audit Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR)
At Tenet, we draw up the internal audit charter and internal audit procedures for clients who wish to establish an internal audit function within their company. As part of this work we also define the position of the internal audit unit within the organisation, the competencies and professional development principles of the internal audit team, their authority and responsibilities, and the working and reporting principles of internal auditors. In setting up the internal audit unit, we take the International Standards for Internal Auditing into account and ensure that our clients establish an internal audit structure that conforms to the standards.