Blog: If Internal Audit Is Not Making an Impact, Roll Up Your Sleeves

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:

​If you occasionally have doubts about the impact of internal audit on your organization, you are not alone. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Global Chief Audit Executive Survey, a staggering 60 percent of chief audit executives (CAEs) believe the internal audit function does not have a strong impact and influence within their organization. And, while that’s obviously bad news for internal auditors, it was actually an improvement from 72 percent in Deloitte’s 2016 survey.

Internal audit’s impact and influence are strengthening at many organizations, but obviously there is still a lot of room for improvement. When I saw the survey results, I posted a question on LinkedIn asking whose fault was it if internal audit did not exert a strong influence on the organization. I assumed that most would say it was the CAE’s fault. To my surprise, many responses pointed to management or the board.

It’s not always easy to admit our faults, but I was dismayed to see how fast many CAEs blamed others for internal audit’s shortcomings. I recognize that, in some corporate cultures, management and the board suppress internal audit, and some have no interest in a strong and well-resourced internal audit function. However, I do not believe this represents the majority of organizations around the world.

In organizations where internal audit does not make a substantial impact or exert a strong influence, we need to acknowledge that some of our own actions contribute to the problem. I don’t want to play the blame game here, but as blogger Norman Marks has pointed out, the path to fixing a problem starts with acknowledging it. If most CAEs believe they don’t have a strong influence on their organizations, it is vital to understand why.

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