Monday 5 May 2014

Expanding the Scope of Internal Audit- A Key to Risk Management

Internal Audit has evolved to play an important role in the organization over the years. Today, it is not just restricted to the financial reporting, control and regulatory compliance of the business, but has become a dynamic topic. It is helpful to set correct the culture of an organization, that in turn leads to the effective enterprise risk management. Recently reputed organizations are caught in various scandals in the health, financial and food sectors. Most of the times the reason is either regulatory compliance, data breach or fraud. On the other hand, business ethics, that was not on the top of list for a lot of enterprises, has emerged now as a key strategic risk that demands immediate attention. The recent regulation on the internal audit states that organizations must not limit the scope of internal audit. It must span through risk culture and control culture of the organization.

  Scope of Internal Audit:

 Organizations must identify the objective they want to accomplish. This helps them to create the appropriate risk culture and values in the organization. Risk management acquires a high priority in the role of Internal auditors. The risk management framework selected by the organization has to mature in order to cast realistic picture of how well risks to their strategic objectives are being managed. A research-led study by an eminent financial institution has listed the key risk-laden departments that are effective managed by the internal audit.

 Key Risk Areas taken care by Internal Audit according to their rank:

  Data privacy and security
  IT projects
 Regulatory compliance
  Reputation and brand
  Business continuity
  Fraud
  Outsourcing
  Ethics and culture
  Talent and skills
  Economic uncertainty

 Conclusion- To conclude, internal audit has an advisory role to play towards assisting the executives to enhance their processes. They can provide practical situation-specific advice and the future vision for the upcoming risks plus how they can be transformed into opportunities.

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