Quais os atributos que um auditor interno deve ter

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria

O auditor interno e a gestão do risco empresarial

O objetivo central deste estudo consiste em demonstrar de que forma o trabalho do auditor interno contribui no processo de gestão de riscos empresariais. Neste sentido, faz-se uma abordagem sobre o conceito de Auditoria Interna, sendo uma atividade destinada a acrescentar valor à organização na medida em que a auxilia na consecução dos seus objetivos, proporcionando-lhe informações oportunas e relevantes para a tomada de decisão. Faz também considerações ao Controlo Interno, no sentido de que as organizações vão sentir diferentes necessidades de controlo interno dependendo da sua dimensão e complexidade do negócio. O controlo interno é um processo desenvolvido pelos Orgãos de Gestão com o propósito de garantir uma segurança razoável no cumprimento dos objetivos estabelecidos. Cabe ao auditor interno auxiliar nesse sentido, ou seja, debruçar-se sobre a avaliação da adequação e eficiência do Sistema de Controlo Interno. Por fim é abordada a importância da Gestão do Risco, neste contexto as organizações têm como compromisso prioritário a implementação de mecanismos de avaliação e gestão dos riscos que possam afetar as suas operações e o cumprimento dos objetivos estratégicos definidos. A Auditoria Interna vai fornecer segurança acerca da eficácia das atividades de gestão do risco das organizações para assegurar que os principais riscos de negócio estão a ser geridos de forma apropriada bem como os sistemas de controlo interno estão a funcionar eficazmente. Ainda na gestão do risco é abordado o modelo COSO ERM, instrumento importante para as organizações na medida em que melhoram a performance e o desempenho dos controlos internos implementados e progridem para um processo de gestão do risco. Faz-se também uma breve referência sobre a Lei Sox, que veio promover uma profunda reforma na elaboração dos relatórios financeiros, no detalhe minucioso sobre os aspetos do controlo interno nas organizações e na transparência das informações divulgadas pelas organizações.

Evaluation of hygienic-sanitary conditions of hospital nutrition and dietary services from the perspectives of internal and external auditors

The objective of this study was to evaluate the hygienic-sanitary conditions of hospital nutrition and dietary services using external and internal auditors. Eleven hospitals were evaluated for their nutrition and dietary services using an evaluation checklist based on food safety requirements in the current legislation. The checklist was applied by an internal auditor (a technical supervisor) and an external auditor (a professional with experience in food services) between August and October 2011. According to the number of items on the evaluation checklist that were considered adequate, the hospital facilities were ranked as excellent, good, regular, bad, or very bad. The results obtained by the auditors were compared. According to these results, it can be said that most of the hospital nutrition and dietary services were rated as good for overall quality by the internal auditor, while the external auditor classified them as Regular. There was a clear difference between the evaluations of the auditors, both in terms of the number of items considered adequate and the overall requirements' average score. It can be concluded that hospital nutrition and dietary services should meet safety requirements in order to provide food. These facilities should have external audits conducted as a way to prevent routine problems from being perpetuated.

O consultor de gestão como auditor interno do seu próprio desempenho

O início do século tem sido pródigo em transformações rápidas e radicais no sector de consultoria, como resultado do questionamento dos modelos de diversificação estratégica levados a cabo por diversas consultoras. Mas, ainda que estas mudanças constituam de certa forma uma barreira à legitimidade do sector, a verdade é que este pressuposto tem contribuído também para o desenvolvimento do estudo do sector no meio académico, sobretudo ao longo dos últimos vinte anos onde tem existido um conjunto de literatura substancial que tem vindo a refletir a contribuição, conceptualização e compreensão da natureza do trabalho de consultoria e sobre o real valor dos consultores na forma como demonstram esse valor aos seus clientes. Daqui, ressaltam então as seguintes questões fulcrais. Consultoria de gestão é para quem? Deverá ser o consultor de gestão um auditor interno do seu próprio desempenho? Assim sendo, o que pretendo neste artigo é exatamente enfatizar um conjunto de pressupostos que permitam descrever um conjunto de requisitos necessários que devem estar implícitos nas características intrínsecas da caracterização de um profissional de serviços de consultoria, pois a premissa desta profissão deve compreender que é o profissional de consultoria que deve gerir as suas atividades e não as atividades gerir o profissional de consultoria. / The beginning of the century has been prolific in rapid and radical transformations in the consultancy sector, as a result of the questioning of models of strategic diversification undertaken by several consultants. But, even if these changes constitute a barrier to the legitimacy of the sector, the truth is that this assumption has also contributed to the development of the sector study in the academic environment, especially over the last twenty years it has existed a set of substantial literature that has come to reflect the contribution, conceptualization and understanding of the nature of consulting work and the real value of consultants in the way that demonstrate value to their customers. It emphasizes two key questions. Management consulting is for whom? It should be the management consultant an internal auditor of its own performance? So, what I want to emphasize in this article is exactly one set of assumptions that allow describing a set of requirements that must be implicit in the characterization of the intrinsic characteristics of a consulting services manager, because the premise of this profession must understand that it is the professional adviser that should manage their activities and not the activities to manage the professional adviser.

Acrescentar valor à organização com a auditoria interna

Dissertação de Mestrado Apresentado ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Auditoria, sob orientação de Doutora Alcina Portugal Dias

Situação atual e perspetiva futura da auditoria interna em Angola

Mestrado em Auditoria

A Implementação de um Sistema de Controlo Interno na Área de Recursos Humanos: O Caso da Universidade de Cabo Verde – Uni-CV-Reitoria da praia

Os recentes acontecimentos verificados em algumas organizações nacionais e estrangeiras, remetem um fraco grau de transparência no que refere a fiabilidade no desempenho e responsabilidades dos seus colaboradores. Este trabalho tem como objectivo propor a implementação de um sistema de controlo interno na Uni-CV, Reitoria da Praia, na área de recursos humanos. Para chegar ao resultado esperado foi realizada uma pesquisa explicativa, com abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa desenvolvendo-se através de fontes já existentes, com a análise dos dados resultantes do questionário aplicado. A fundamentação teórica abordou os aspectos mais importantes do controlo interno e recursos humanos. O caso prático foi realizado, pelas suas características, se considera de grande relevância não só para com a organização em si, mas também, para a administração pública cabo-verdiana, de forma que, quando implementadas, contribuirão para o bom desempenho das instituições. A análise dos dados obtidos com a aplicação do questionário, ao Director Administrativo e Financeiro da Reitoria da Praia e a observação participante dos procedimentos na área de recursos humanos possibilitaram verificar a necessidade de implementação de um sistema de controlo interno adequado e rigoroso, e um internal controller, que será o responsável pelo controlo das rotinas na área dos RH (Auditor interno) e modelar o tipo de controlo interno a ser aplicado na referida área.

Effective corporate governance : experimental evidence on international auditors'judgments and the contribution of financial accounting education

1 Summary This dissertation deals with two major aspects of corporate governance that grew in importance during the last years: the internal audit function and financial accounting education. In three essays, I contribute to research on these topics which are embedded in the broader corporate governance literature. The first two essays consist of experimental investigations of internal auditors' judgments. They deal with two research issues for which accounting research lacks evidence: The effectiveness of internal controls and the potentially conflicting role of the internal audit function between management and the audit committee. The findings of the first two essays contribute to the literature on internal auditors' judgment and the role of the internal audit function as a major cornerstone of corporate governance. The third essay theoretically examines a broader issue but also relates to the overall research question of this dissertation: What contributes to effective corporate governance? This last essay takes the perspective that the root for quality corporate governance is appropriate financial accounting education. r develop a public interest approach to accounting education that contributes to the literature on adequate accounting education with respect to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. The increasing importance of both the internal audit function and accounting education for corporate governance can be explained by the same recent fundamental changes that still affect accounting research and practice. First, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX, 2002) and the 8th EU Directive (EU, 2006) have led to a bigger role for the internal audit function in corporate governance. Their implications regarding the implementation of audit committees and their oversight over internal controls are extensive. As a consequence, the internal audit function has become increasingly important for corporate governance and serves a new master (i.e. the audit committee) within the company in addition to management. Second, the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive introduced additional internal control mechanisms that are expected to contribute to the reliability of financial information. As a consequence, the internal audit function is expected to contribute to a greater extent to the reliability of financial statements. Therefore, effective internal control mechanisms that strengthen objective judgments and independence become important. This is especially true when external- auditors rely on the work of internal auditors in the context of the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 610 and the equivalent US Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 65 (see IFAC, 2009 and AICPA, 1990). Third, the harmonization of international reporting standards is increasingly promoted by means of a principles-based approach. It is the leading approach since a study of the SEC (2003) that was required by the SOX (2002) in section 108(d) was in favor of this approach. As a result, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) commit themselves to the development of compatible accounting standards based on a principles-based approach. Moreover, since the Norwalk Agreement of 2002, the two standard setters have developed exposure drafts for a common conceptual framework that will be the basis for accounting harmonization. The new .framework will be in favor of fair value measurement and accounting for real-world economic phenomena. These changes in terms of standard setting lead to a trend towards more professional judgment in the accounting process. They affect internal and external auditors, accountants, and managers in general. As a consequence, a new competency set for preparers and users of financial statements is required. The basil for this new competency set is adequate accounting education (Schipper, 2003). These three issues which affect corporate governance are the initial point of this dissertation and constitute its motivation. Two broad questions motivated a scientific examination in three essays: 1) What are major aspects to be examined regarding the new role of the internal audit function? 2) How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? The first question became apparent due to two published literature reviews by Gramling et al. (2004) and Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright (2004). These studies raise various questions for future research that are still relevant and which motivate the first two essays of my dissertation. In the first essay, I focus on the role of the internal audit function as one cornerstone of corporate governance and its potentially conflicting role of serving both management and the audit committee (IIA, 2003). In an experimental study, I provide evidence on the challenges for internal auditors in their role as servant for two masters -the audit committee and management -and how this influences internal auditors' judgment (Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004). I ask if there is an expectation gap between what internal auditors should provide for corporate governance in theory compared to what internal auditors are able to provide in practice. In particular, I focus on the effect of serving two masters on the internal auditor's independence. I argue that independence is hardly achievable if the internal audit function serves two masters with conflicting priorities. The second essay provides evidence on the effectiveness of accountability as an internal control mechanism. In general, internal control mechanisms based on accountability were enforced by the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive. Subsequently, many companies introduced sub-certification processes that should contribute to an objective judgment process. Thus, these mechanisms are important to strengthen the reliability of financial statements. Based on a need for evidence on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms (Brennan & Solomon, 2008; Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004; Solomon & Trotman, 2003), I designed an experiment to examine the joint effect of accountability and obedience pressure in an internal audit setting. I argue that obedience pressure potentially can lead to a negative influence on accountants' objectivity (e.g. DeZoort & Lord, 1997) whereas accountability can mitigate this negative effect. My second main research question - How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? - is investigated in the third essay. It is motivated by the observation during my PhD that many conferences deal with the topic of accounting education but very little is published about what needs to be done. Moreover, the Endings in the first two essays of this thesis and their literature review suggest that financial accounting education can contribute significantly to quality corporate governance as argued elsewhere (Schipper, 2003; Boyce, 2004; Ghoshal, 2005). In the third essay of this thesis, I therefore focus on approaches to financial accounting education that account for the changes in standard setting and also contribute to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. I argue that the competency set that is required in practice changes due to major changes in standard setting. As the major contribution of the third article, I develop a public interest approach for financial accounting education. The major findings of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. The first essay provides evidence to an important research question raised by Gramling et al. (2004, p. 240): "If the audit committee and management have different visions for the corporate governance role of the IAF, which vision will dominate?" According to the results of the first essay, internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee based on the guidance provided by the Chief Audit executive. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. My findings contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the broader frame of corporate governance. The results are also important for practice because independence is a major justification for a positive contribution of the internal audit function to corporate governance. The major findings of the second essay indicate that the duty to sign work results - a means of holding people accountable -mitigates the negative effect of obedience pressure on reliability. Hence, I found evidence that control .mechanisms relying on certifications may enhance the reliability of financial information. These findings contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms. They are also important in the light of sub-certification processes that resulted from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the 8th EU Directive. The third essay contributes to the literature by developing a measurement framework that accounts for the consequences of major trends in standard setting. Moreovér, it shows how these trends affect the required .competency set of people dealing with accounting issues. Based on this work, my main contribution is the development of a public interest approach for the design of adequate financial accounting curricula. 2 Serving two masters: Experimental evidence on the independence of internal auditors Abstract Twenty nine internal auditors participated in a study that examines the independence of internal auditors in their potentially competing roles of serving two masters: the audit committee and management. Our main hypothesis suggests that internal auditors' independence is not achievable in an institutional setting in which internal auditors are accountable to two different parties with potentially differing priorities. We test our hypothesis in an experiment in which the treatment consisted of two different instructions of the Chief audit executive; one stressing the priority of management (cost reduction) and one stressing the priority of the audit committee (effectiveness). Internal auditors had to evaluate internal controls and their inherent costs of different processes which varied in their degree of task complexity. Our main results indicate that internal auditors' evaluation of the processes is significantly different when task complexity is high. Our findings suggest that internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee depending on the instructions of a superior internal auditor. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. With our findings, we contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the frame of corporate governance.

Riskianalyysi sisäisen valvonnan apuvälineenä

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli pyrkiä selvittämään Ilmatieteen laitoksen toiminnalliset ja taloudelliset riskit. Tämä toteutettiin Ilmatieteen laitoksen ulkoisten ja sisäisten sidosryhmien haastatteluiden perusteella. Riskeistä rakennettiin Ilmatieteen laitokselle riskianalyysimalli, jonka kautta riskejä voidaan laitoksessa systemaattisesti tarkastella. Riskianalyysin on myös tarkoitus toimia apuvälineenä laitoksen sisäistä valvontaa ja riskienhallintaa kehitettäessä. Riskianalyysissä riskejä arvioitiin riskiin sisältyvän kahden komponentin, todennäköisyyden ja seurausten, avulla. Näin saatiin riskit karkeasti vertailukelpoiseksi keskenään. Riskeistä muodostettiin ensin toimintokohtainen riskianalyysi, jonka jälkeen riskejä analysoitiin myös koko laitoksen tasolla. Riskejä ilmeni hyvin erilaisia: osaamiseen ja henkilöstöön liittyviä ja toisaalta pitkän tähtäimen strategisiin valintoihin liittyviä. Ilmatieteen laitoksen täytyy hallita toimintaansa ja toimintaympäristöönsä liittyvät muutokset ja olla uudistumiskykyinen. Täytyy myös huomata, että riskianalyysin lisäksi sisäisen valvonnan kehittämisessä on organisaation johdolla ja sisäisellä tarkastajalla tärkeä rooli.

Auditoria interna diante do paradigma da flexibilização organizacional

The great challenge, in terms of human factor, related to the planning of the strategy of an organization is to integrate the sides human and managerial through mechanisms that make possible the appropriate control of the activities, in a such way that the company obtains won developing and being developed by your collaborators. In the last decades the world of the work is suffering several mutations. If in a high level he/she enrolls a pressure for the globalization of the economical activity of new markets; in a low level, the resource is observed to the economical efficiency as guiding criterion of the new employment politics, the alteration of the constitution of the manpower and a growing pressure for the organizational flexibilization as competitive factor. These are some of the changes that have been leading to the appearance of new social inequalities in the world of the work and that have been coming to affect the workers' implication organizational being translated then in the emergency of new values, expectations, and evaluations face to the work and the established relationship between the individuals and the organizations. Before that perspective, the elaboration of the present work had as objective approaches the effects of an audit it interns before the paradigm of the organizational flexibilization. It evaluates if the concepts of the internal audit and your performance, in a bank atmosphere, are just centred in the internal controls or if in some way they contribute inside to the democratization of the social relationships of the organization. We concluded the work exploring the internal auditor's fundamental paper and your potential for use of the instrument democratization of the social relationships in the organizations.

Fatores influenciadores da gestão da qualidade e independência do auditor: um estudo de caso

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria Orientada por: Doutora Alcina Dias

Report on a review of selected general and application controls over the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Internal Billing System for the period April 6, 2009 through July 31, 2009

Report on a review of selected general and application controls over the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Internal Billing System for the period April 6, 2009 through July 31, 2009

Audit report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting of the State University of Iowa as of and for the year ended June 30, 2011

Audit report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting of the State University of Iowa as of and for the year ended June 30, 2011

Independent auditor’s report of the State of Iowa on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters based on an audit of financial statements performed in accordance with government auditing standards for the year ended June 30, 2011

Independent auditor’s report of the State of Iowa on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters based on an audit of financial statements performed in accordance with government auditing standards for the year ended June 30, 2011

Audit report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters of the State of Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters of the State of Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2012