Recently added articles from Internal Auditor:
In times of adversity.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Apr 01, 2009; ... THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS CLEARLY TAKEN A TOLL ON organizations, forcing many to cut back, downsize, and restructure their operations. Consequently, many businesses now operate under leaner budgets and are forced to make due with fewer resources. Banks and manufacturers have been ...
COSO publishes monitoring guidance: IASB issues fair-value disclosure requirements executives prefer internal investigations for corruption financial regulatory system tops GAO risk list audit staff sizes and scope hold steady.(UPDATE)
Apr 01, 2009; ... THE COMMITTEE OF SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS OF the Treadway Commission (COSO) has published new guidance to help organizations better monitor the effectiveness of their internal control system and take corrective actions if needed. The three-volume Guidance on Monitoring Internal Control, ...
March of progress.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... WHILE BROWSING THOUGH OUR PUBLICATIONS ARCHIVE AT IIA Global Headquarters, I recently came across the very first issue of Internal Auditor. Published nearly 65 years ago, this modest looking black and white journal features just a handful of short articles and minimal production value, at ...
Remembering Anne Graham.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008 ... I would like to join in the celebration of Anne Graham's life ("A Passion for Excellence," October 2008). The picture of her brought back many memories of this fine lady. She had more than "enthusiasm" for quality--she had a fiery level of passion for the magazine, The Institute, and the ...
ERM'S real purpose.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008 ... I enjoyed reading the article, "Engineering Value Into Enterprise Risk Management" in the October 2008 issue of Internal Auditor. It provides great insight into hoe to leverage existing management systems processes to help implement enterprise risk management (ERM). There was ...
Fair value under fire: new objectives for presenting financial statements management overlooks HR risks changing priorities for financial firms incentive cutbacks raise audit concerns.(UPDATE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. ACCOUNTING AND AUDIT standard--setters are defending fair value accounting against criticism, that it may gave contributed to the global financial crisis. Political and business leaders in Europe and the United States say fair value, or mark-to-market, accounting has ...
IASB and FASB propose new objectives for financial statement presentation.(UPDATE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... AJOINT DISCUSSION PAPER BY THE IASB AND THE FASB analyzes ways to present financial statements in the future. Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation addresses users' concerns that existing requirements permit too many alternative types of presentation and that information in ...
HR risks are largely ignored.(UPDATE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) ISSUES Rank AMONG THE TOP five business issues impacting a corporation's results, yet 41 percent of executives surveyed admit to reviewing these risks on an ad hoc basis or never, according to a Ernst & Young (E & Y) report, 2008 Global Human Resources Risk: From the ...
Financial firms reassess priorities.(UPDATE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... MORE THAN (95) PERCENT OF BOARD MEMBERS OF U.S. financial services firms say greater clarity is needed regarding what is and is not reported on an organization's balance sheet, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey. Sixty-five percent of respondents say corporate boards ...
Cost-cutting impacts employee incentives.(UPDATE)
Dec 01, 2008; ... MANY ORGANIZATIONS ARE TRIMMING INCENTIVE programs in reaction to recent economic turmoil, according to a Deloitte survey of 151 U.S. companies. Fifty-nine percent of respondents expect their annual incentive plans to pay out below target, and 11 percent say there will be no pat out at ...
New standards to assess risks.(Regulatory Notes)
Dec 01, 2008; ... THE U.S. PUBLIC COMPANY Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has proposed seven new audit standards regarding an external auditor's assessment of, and responses to, risk and materiality. These standards cover various audit stages, from planning to evaluation of results. The ...
Committee adopts final report on audit profession.(Regulatory Notes)
Dec 01, 2008; ... THE U.S. TREASURY DEPARTment's Advisory Committee on the Auditing profession has adopted its final report, with more than 30 recommendations for improving the public company audit profession. The committee was established in May 2007 and was co-chaired by former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt ...
Producing quality workpapers: workpapers serve as the record of the audit work performed demonstrate compliance with the Standards, and ultimately reflect the quality of audits.(BACK TO BASICS)
Dec 01, 2008; ... THE GOAL OF AN INTERNAL AUDIT project is to add value and improve an organization's operations. This goal is accomplished through the identification of control weaknesses, potential process improvements, and positive change opportunities. Audit workpapers facilitate this process by ...
The five C's of IT policy: reviewing the effectiveness of information security policies is a key part of IT audit plans.(ITAUDIT)
Dec 01, 2008; ... ENSURING DATA INTEGRITY AND CONFidentiality in an environment of fast access to confidential information is a real challenge for management. Security breaches can result in monetary losses and threaten as organization's reputation and survival. In fact, 85 percent of respondents to Ernst & ...
Risk: key to governance: internal auditors should familiarize themselves with risk management's place in overall GRC processes.(GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVES)
Dec 01, 2008; ... OVER THE YEARS, MANY COMPANIES have been caught off guard by devastating discoveries. Examples include GapKids' manufacturing factories employing child labor in India; Mattel toys in China containing lead contaminants; and Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol capsules being laced with cyanide ....
Real-world ERM: the failed loans and credit products that have shaken global financial markets point to the immediate need to manage enterprise risks.
Dec 01, 2008; ... ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT (ERM) SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCELLENT IDEA Embed risk in every business decision, connect the strategy-setting process to the control framework, and thread it throughout the organization--top down and bottom up. Do that, and the board has a dashboard view of all the ...
12 top ERM implementation challenges: internal auditors can guide management and he board through the issues related to establishing enterprise risk management.
Dec 01, 2008; ... ORGANIZATIONS IMPLEMENTING ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT (ERM) face many challenges. The process is difficult because ERM is not easily understood, in part because there are so many different concepts to assimilate and pitfalls to avoid. There is a significant need for ERM if ...
In times of crisis: internal auditors can provide a lifeline to organizations before disaster strikes by examining business continuity efforts and helping clients prepare for the worst.
Dec 01, 2008; ... THE BROWN WAVES OF FLOOD WATERS THAT ROSE UP FROM THE RANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN JUNE, threatening to destroy America's crop-producing heartland, created images of devastation and hopelessness that none who witnessed them will ever forget. Newly homeless families surveyed what was ...
Auditing for compliance: by auditing the organization's corporate compliance program, internal auditors can help reduce regulatory violations and keep their board informed.
Dec 01, 2008; ... IN 2008, MICROSOFT CORP. WAS FINED 899 MILLION EUROS (US $1.15 BILLION) BY EUROPEAN UNION REGULATORS for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust order. The previous year, DaimlerChrysler paid a US $30 million fine for failing to meet U.S. federal fuel-efficiency standards. And that same ...
The risk of rogues: a firsthand witness to rogue trading's devastating effects shares his experience and lessons learned from within the audit department.
Dec 01, 2008; ... IN JANUARY 2008, THE MANAGEMENT OF SOCIETE GENERALE BANK IN FRANCE announced that it had suffered a [euro]4.9 billion (US $6.2 billion) loss due to the activities of a "rogue trader" named Jerome Kerviel. the bank stated that Kerviel acted alone and had exceeded his trading limits by ...