Financial Education - Business universe and objectives of internal auditing

In the business world, the objective of internal auditing is to assist the members of the organization in the effective discharge of their responsibilities. To this extent, internal audit provides them with analysis, assessments, recommendations, advice and information on the activities reviewed.

Accordingly, the objectives of internal audit should be to maintain effective internal control; to ensure the smooth functioning of the organization, its operating systems and the proper use of its resources; to ensure compliance with management's policies, standards and instructions.

The internal audit should also constantly improve the management of the company; keep the management informed of any exceptions detected, proposing the corresponding actions to remedy them; ensure compliance by the various bodies and centers of the company with its recommendations and suggestions; promote the necessary changes, sensitizing its employees to adapt to the new systems; suppress fraud and irregularities and safeguard the company's assets.

Other functional elements of Internal Audit include the review of operations to verify the authenticity, accuracy and concordance with established policies and procedures, the control of assets through accounting and physical records.

In addition to the review of established policies and procedures to evaluate their effectiveness, review of whether accounting procedures were applied consistently with generally accepted accounting principles, the audit of other organizations with which there are contractual relationships for compliance with the provisions of contracts, and evaluation of compliance with the strategies of the organization.