Internal audit and risk expert Norman Marks recently blogged on the topic of why internal audit findings sometimes go ignored. Indeed, there have been several recent examples where an organization experienced a public failure even though the issue had previously been identified and reported by the internal audit team.
“When internal audit is seen as focusing on the mundane and burying any gems in a haystack of words, is it any wonder that management doesn’t look forward to internal audit reports?” Marks writes. “They don’t see them as a valuable source of insight and actionable information that is critical to their running of the organization.”
In fact, the auditors should have already worked with management to agree on both the issues and the actions to be taken. The audit report is how resolution is communicated, not how change is encouraged. Marks went on to provide several reasons why audit findings get ignored, and why communication is so important to preventing the problem.