Internal audits refer to the audits done by employees and stakeholders within the organizations with a view to evaluate and assess whether the organization is following the internal processes, norms, rules, and regulations in addition to determining whether it is in compliance with the regulatory norms.
Indeed, internal audits are sometimes the first checkpoints for organizations to determine whether their books of accounts, operational processes, and IT infrastructure and security protocols are in order with both the internal objectives, strategic imperatives, and external regulatory requirements.
Having said that, it must be noted that the reason why internal audits are not accorded more importance over external audits is that since they are being performed by employees and individuals within the organizations, the apparent lack of objectivity and thoroughness apart from a tendency to "cover things up" means that often, external audits are considered more trustworthy.
External audits are done by independent and third party agencies and companies that are especially tasked with assessing and evaluating an organizations’ compliance with the regulatory norms.
Further, some organizations also hire external auditors to "hold a mirror to themselves" in the sense that any deficiencies and irregularities can be found that are otherwise not "visible" to the senior leadership and management during the course of conducting the everyday operational business.
Moreover, external audits are also mandatory due to regulatory and compliance reasons as well as due to the shareholder requirements which mandate that external audits need to be done annually, quarterly, and half yearly to be presented in the Annual General Meetings, and meetings of the Board of Directors.
In addition, external audits might also be required in case of contingencies wherein the regulators who suspect that "something is amiss" in the companies might mandate those companies to be audited by independent and third party auditors to ascertain the "true picture" of the finances and operational details of those companies.
As mentioned earlier, financial audits are the most common form of audits for various reasons including the fact that businesses exist to make money and return profits and generate wealth for their shareholders. This means that investors and other stakeholders must know whether the businesses are being run properly so that their capital is safe and generating the stated returns.
Moreover, financial audits are also the most common forms of audits since any discrepancies in the books of accounts reflects the mismanagement of the companies in addition to finance affecting almost all operational and strategic areas of the companies’ and their businesses.
The department will be contacted in advance of the audit visit;
Heads of audited institutions and departmental administrators will attend an initial scoping meeting where the internal auditor will explain the purpose of the audit;
The internal auditor will explain what information will be required;
After the audit takes place, a draft report will be prepared for the department to comment upon;
There will be a closing meeting which heads of institutions are encouraged to attend and they will be asked to complete and sign feedback forms for consideration by the Audit Committee;
The final report is issued.
Your department will be contacted either because it has been identified for audit as part of a cycle which aims to cover all departments, or because a sample of departments has been selected by the auditors to carry out a thematic audit, for example to look at purchasing processes and procedures. Often, School Offices are consulted over the choice of Department to audit from their School. Occasionally the auditors will be asked to conduct an audit in response to a particular concern at an institution. In all cases, the audit brief will be discussed with the head of institution before any fieldwork takes place.
The audit plan is designed to ensure that all major University departments participate in some form of audit over the course of the three-year programme; most will have contact with the audit team on more than one occasion owing to differing types of audit taking place. You will be given several weeks' notice of the audit and efforts will be made to conduct the audit at a time which is convenient to you.
Each audit has a designated sponsor. This can be the Head of the Department or institution concerned, but may be a senior person with designated responsibility for a certain area (e.g. continuity planning). The audit team will work with the audit sponsor to define the scope and timing of the audit. They will also ask for recommendations of people who should be interviewed as part of the audit field work. The audit sponsor will also attend key meetings during the audit and is responsible for providing written management responses to the draft audit report.
Internal audit covers all areas of the University’s operations. There are different types of audit, the most common being 'departmental' and 'thematic'. Departmental audits cover a range of processes and procedures, typically focusing on compliance with the University’s and/or sponsor’s regulations. Thematic audits involve a number of institutions to provide assurance on a particular area, such as purchasing or credit control. Other audits may look at systems and IT. The auditors are looking to assess compliance with regulations and to get an understanding of the mechanisms in place to manage key areas of risk. They may identify areas of best practice as well as areas for improvement.
When the auditors have completed their work they will make a number of recommendations ranked by priority and will also give an overall assurance rating for the department/area concerned. The audit sponsor will be asked to provide a response to all recommendations made before the report is finalised. As stated above, the auditors may also highlight areas of best practice which could be shared with other departments and institutions.
Draft internal audit reports are seen only by the audit sponsor, any other agreed stakeholders, the Director of Finance and his Deputy. The Audit Committee receives a copy of the final report. Copies of all audit reports are held on file by the Registrary’s Office. The Council receives minutes of the Audit Committee (but not usually papers) and so will see which audits have been conducted along with a synopsis of their outcome. The Audit and Regulatory Compliance Officer, who is the Assistant Secretary to the Audit Committee, forwards the relevant minutes of the Committee’s discussion to the audit sponsor.
Each of the auditor’s recommendations will have a deadline for action and these will be followed up when the agreed deadline in the final report is due. The timing of the follow-up visit is dependent upon the nature of the finding.
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