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SUMMARY Internal Auditing Best Practices
The primary intent of this chapter was to recommend a shift in focus for the inter-
nal audit department, from a detailed reviewer of business processes to an enabler
of process improvements. This change requires a significant attitudinal adjustment
by the internal audit manager, who is probably wedded to the traditional concept of
independent control reviews that tend to create adversarial or, at least, cool relations
with company managers. If the recommendations made here seem to be too much of
a stretch for the internal audit manager, then try just one best practice—the business
unit survey—which may reveal that the rest of the company gives a lower value to
the internal audit department than its manager supposes, and which may then spark
further changes.