THE INCREASING ROLE OF AN INTERNAL AUDITOR

Ernst & Young has made a study about the role of the internal auditor in companies. “Ernst & Young’s 2008 Global Internal Audit Survey” examines the current situation and the evolutions in the internal department of auditing. Besides, the study also shows how the auditors fulfil the increasing expectations of the stakeholders.

The role of the internal auditor becomes more consultative. This is the result of the difficult economic situation and the increased expectations of the stakeholders. Those put pressure on the (executive) managers and the audit committee to improve risk management.

The inquiry has shown that in the years to come there has to be more attention to operational risks, such as IT (75%), mergers and acquisitions (61%), improvement of performance(45%), fraud (39%), ...
Further, 64% declares that it’s difficult to find and keep employees with specialised knowledge on these fields.

Because the expectations are changed, the traditional skills of the internal auditor don’t fulfil the needs of the current companies. Given that employees with specialised knowledge are hard to find, companies are short-handed. That’s why it’s difficult to have an effective risk management. Only 17% of companies declares their risk management is very competent.

On the one hand, it’s positive that the role of the internal auditor is increasing, but on the other hand, the functions may not be too various. Because in that case companies won’t find employees.
Moreover, if internal auditors are given too much work, the productivity will decrease, the result being that the risk management won’t improve either.

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