Internal Auditors Require More Management Support: Thomson Reuters Survey

A survey conducted by Thomson Reuters, led them to conclude that Internal auditors require increased amount of vocal as well as visible support from their senior managers since the ever changing demand pattern is putting them under a lot of pressure.

The survey also revealed that an increase in the number of regulations, fresh focus on corruption and fraud and increased risk management scrutiny from corporate boards, regulators, executives and shareholders are putting more emphasis on internal audit functions.

More than fifty seven per cent of the people who responded to the survey stated that enhanced focus on risk controlling was one of the biggest challenges in the years to come. While most of the respondents saw management of risk as one of the biggest priorities of organizations, only about twelve per cent of the organizations surveyed stated that they had a strong and embedded risk management system as well as resources to handle different types of risks.

More than 40% of the people who responded to the survey stated that stated that meetings with the risk and compliance management team members were either ad hoc or they were not sure about the meeting frequency. Most of the survey respondents noted that they do expect the audit business process to improve in the years to come. They also mentioned that they saw some sort of an opportunity to shift to a more effective model of operation.

As many as 83% of the respondents pointed out that assurance over internal controlling was the top most area where internal audit function’s resource and time were being applied to. On the other hand, 44% of the respondents cited IT risk as well as security as the second important priority.

The respondents were also asked to point out the top priorities for internal audit function and around 38% of the respondents noted that risk management at the strategic level was the top most issue, whereas 30% pointed out corporate governance as an important area that required the maximum amount of resources.

When it came to responding on audit workpapers management, only about 28% of the respondents indicated that their process was robust and around half of the respondents (49%) stated that even though they had created a workpaper process, it still required a lot of work and polishing.