Today, more than ever, leading organizations depend on the quality of internal audit.
A business climate driven by demands for better governance, accountability and transparency has created new demands on internal audit. In this new climate, audit committees and management are asking tough questions about the quality and effectiveness of their internal audit functions.
Making quality count
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) internal audit services practice has extensive experience in assisting audit committees, chief audit executives and management in ensuring internal audit quality and effectiveness. Our experience is that quality must be considered from three viewpoints:
- Effectiveness in meeting the needs of stakeholders;
- Efficiency and effectiveness in the use of the latest internal audit best practices; and
- Effectiveness in complying with applicable professional and/or regulatory internal audit standards and requirements.
Internal audit must address all three dimensions to be considered highly effective in today’s challenging
environment.
To help organizations evaluate and enhance internal audit quality and effectiveness, PwC has developed two models that are useful in helping organizations to envision, structure and operate the most effective internal audit function to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations:
