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Auditing Forward

One of the new Core Principles for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing proposed by the IIA’s Exposure Draft (if you haven’t seen it, read it, and responded please do so) is:


Norman Marks
Norman Marks
1. - [Internal Audit is] insightful, proactive, and future-focused.

The last two adjectives, proactive and future-focused, translate to internal audit “auditing forward”.

This is an expression I only heard for the first time this year. It may have been one of the other members of the IIA Task Force that used it; but whoever said it, it resonated with me.

I have a chapter on “Auditing Forward” in my book on World-Class Internal Auditing and the best way for me to explain my thinking is through excerpts.

" i[ I assess my effectiveness as CAE by my ability to prevent internal control or risk issues when I can, rather than identify them (and find fault) when they already exist and represent an obstacle to organizational success.

If you are familiar with the CSI TV series, you can imagine a crime scene investigator entering a room and telling a detective “you have a dead body”. If I can, I prefer to be working with management to ensure there are reasonable controls that would prevent a dead body.

That means a couple of things: seeing the value of internal audit as helping improve risk management and controls, and “auditing forward”.

“Auditing forward” means being involved in new initiatives and projects [such as a pre-implementation controls review of a new IT system], providing consulting advice that helps management implement a reasonable level of controls and security.

It means seeing our success as linked to the success of management. If management implements a new system without sufficient controls or security, when we had an opportunity to warn them, it reflects as a failure on our part. Either we failed to identify the issue, to persuade management it was important, or to work with them on corrective actions that addressed the problem.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Auditing forward” also means auditing the risks that impact today and tomorrow, not limiting your focus to what has happened in the past.

Is there value in somebody telling you that the road in front of the house you lived in last year is being repaired? You only want to know about road conditions where you are likely to drive now or in the future.

In the same way, internal audit needs to provide assurance and consulting advice on the risks of today and tomorrow. Telling management what has been a problem in the past has some limited value, but only to the extent that those conditions continue to exist and similar problems may continue into the future.

Wayne Gretzky’s father advised him to “skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been”.

Internal auditors need to take this advice to heart and audit where the risk is going to be, not where it has been.

That requires:

Being sufficiently agile to change the internal audit plan as risks and business conditions change; and,
Knowing that risks and business conditions are changing.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Business leaders and the board like it when internal auditors talk about the business using the language of the business; when we can demonstrate that we understand what the company is doing and where it wants to go; and, where we can show that our work is directed to helping them succeed – arriving safely where they want to go.]i


Do you “audit forward”?

I welcome your views and comments.


Norman Marks, CPA, is vice president, governance, risk, and compliance for SAP's BusinessObjects division, and has been a chief audit executive of major global corporations for more than 15 years. He is the contributing editor to Internal Auditor’s “Governance Perspectives” column.
normanmarks.wordpress.com/



Les médias du groupe Finyear


Vendredi 19 Septembre 2014




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