An internal audit at Canadian health provider Sagkeeng Health Centre identified as much as $1.4 million in improper payments to employees and managers. The audit found unwarranted travel allowances, pay for questionable extra duties and for speeding tickets among the items covered by funding for the healthcare organization on Sagkeeng Read More
The Society of Insurance Broking (SIB), a U.K.-based professional association, has issued a new guide for internal auditors to reinforce the hallmarks of a well-structured internal audit function in the industry. While the practice guide is aimed at insurance brokerage firms, it highlights some best practices that are valid for Read More
Like companies in many industries, banks are having a difficult time finding and retaining qualified compliance staffers. In fact, recruiting good compliance professionals has gotten so hard that the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) says that it has become a top risk for financial firms, especially regional Read More
The Center for Audit Quality has published a new report on top technology risks and highlights auditor considerations regarding those risks. The resource “Emerging Technologies, Risk, and the Auditor’s Focus,” is intended to help auditors, audit committees, and management get a better handle on the risks and challenges that come Read More
The city of Glendale, Ariz. has eliminated its internal auditor position, in a move that some say will reduce accountability of city business, but city leaders insist will strengthen it. The Glendale City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday to eliminate the auditor position and instead use only outside contractors to perform audits. A Read More
Guest Blog Post The whole point of most children’s fairytales is to teach life lessons. Occasionally, these lessons can even be applied to our work lives and professional circumstances. Of course, the complexity and nuance of professional decision-making goes well beyond the broad moral brush strokes of most fables, but Read More
Editor’s Note: This is part five of a six-part series on the Internal Audit Value Chain, which can act as a blueprint for building a successful internal audit function. Click here for the other articles in the series. One of the biggest myths about internal auditors is that they are Read More
Perhaps the Securities and Exchange Commission is mistaking Internal Audit Awareness Month with Internal Audit Malfeasance Awareness Month. Last Thursday the SEC filed insider trading charges against two internal auditors for allegedly sharing tips that they got from their respective employers. On the same day, the SEC announced that the Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed changes that would limit the need to adhere to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requirements to obtain audits of their financial controls over financial reporting (SOX 404) to larger public companies. The SEC voted yesterday to propose amendments to the accelerated filer and large Read More
For a long time, many companies have used process improvement strategies—ideas such as Six Sigma, Lean, Kaizen, Total Quality Management, Re-engineering, and a slew of others—to streamline operational processes, and they have done so with great success. Process improvement and continuous improvement initiatives, which often rely on the help of Read More
