Blog: A QAR Should Never Be Weaponized Against Internal Audit

Blog: A QAR Should Never Be Weaponized Against Internal Audit

In his blog, IIA President and CEO Richard Chambers, CIA, QIAL, CGAP, CCSA, CRMA, shares his personal reflections and insights on the internal audit profession. Here’s an excerpt from his latest post:

As The IIA’s president and CEO, I address many audiences about the internal audit profession. When I have the opportunity to speak to members of boardrooms and C-suites, I try to convey to them the value of having their internal audit functions conform to The IIA’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing.

Indeed, affirming conformance to the Standards through a periodic External Quality Assessment, often referred to as a Quality Assurance Review (QAR), signals to stakeholders that an internal audit function operates at a high level of ethical and professional competencies. A properly executed QAR should be a trusted measure of a function’s conformance to the International Professional Practice Framework, and it should be one that identifies opportunities for improvement.

Unfortunately, stakeholders sometimes use a QAR as a weapon against practitioners who are simply doing their jobs. This may be the case in Dallas, where the school district butted heads this month with its chief audit executive (CAE) over work that identified overpayments to contractors.

Read the full InternalAuditor.org blog post from IIA President and CEO Richard Chambers.

Pasidalinti