What is Internal Audit Department? (Responsibilities and More)

Overview:

The internal Audit Department is the independent or non-operation department in the organization set up by the board of directors and audit committee to perform internal audit services in the company.

It is part of the company’s risk management since part of the internal auditor’s responsibility is also to assess how the company’s risks are assessed and managed.

The internal audit department is set up to perform the internal audit activities required by the board of directors or the company’s management and as required by the local law and regulator’s requirements.

This department is run by the chief of internal audit or sometimes run by the head of the internal audit department of the organization structure and boards’ decision.

Check here if you want to know more about what an audit is. This article will discuss the key rule and responsibilities of internal audit duction or department.

1) Administrative works

Even though the internal audit department is independent and not involved with the operation, the employee working in this department is still an entity employee.

Therefore, there are some works and reports that this department reports to executive departments like Finance, HR, or Admin.

The staff performance of this department is sometimes reporting executive departments and sometimes does not to avoid conflict of interest and breach of independence.

2) Main reporting line

Based on INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE OF INTERNAL AUDITING (STANDARDS), the Internal Audit Department should be under the control of the audit committee and the Board of Directors.

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We call this department the non-operation department because the standard and best practices, to ensure the quality of work and objectives, require this department to separate independence from the operational activities of the organization.

The main objective behind putting the Internal Audit Department outside maintaining the Internal Audit Department to be independent is to ensure that all the judgment and works done by them stay independent and objective.

Let me tell you why it’s important to keep its independence. For example, the organization will be at risk if the internal audit involves the operation, and the bonus is based on the company’s performance.

The risk is that, for example, the is a sales transaction or decision.