2007 State of the internal audit profession study
Pressures build for continual focus on risk*

To enhance organisational risk management, internal audit must embrace ongoing risk monitoring and frequent enterprise-wide risk assessments.

The ongoing migration to a more risk-based approach to internal audit has spawned a natural evolution with respect to the roles and responsibilities of internal audit and the scope of internal audit activities. A decade ago, only a relative handful of internal audit groups were taking a legitimate risk-based approach to the audit-planning process. Today, there is a growing recognition of the strong link between effective risk assessments and effective audit coverage. To strengthen risk management performance, consider the following six imperatives:

  • Adopt a process approach to risk assessment and planning.
  • Supplement annual risk assessments with quarterly or more frequent updates.
  • Leverage your prior assessment results.
  • Align and leverage risk assessments.
  • Seek out the specialised talent you need.
  • Coordinate effectively with other risk management groups.
In the fourth quarter of 2006, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted its third State of the Profession survey to capture a current view of the internal audit profession. We discovered that the levels of internal audit resources that are needed to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation have stabilised but that it will be difficult to achieve further reductions in resources. We found that chief audit executives (CAEs) are most concerned with finding sufficient talent to meet stakeholder needs, and that rotational staffing is fast becoming the prevalent staffing model for large corporate internal audit groups. And we developed further insight into the pros and cons of CAEs including ratings and opinions in their audit findings and reports.

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Contacts
Robin Low
Partner
Sydney
Tel:+61 2 8266 2977
Of further interest
2007 State of the internal audit profession study