Mutual exclusivity? I'm hearing a lot of comments about the relevance and the redundancy of internal controls and especially internal controls development and internal controls training. A number of new management philosophies such as this one - pretty much unknown outside of the French speaking world, but mirrorred in philosophies such as the one of … Continue reading The real relevance of internal controls and their development
Tag: audit academy
Tone & content audit report = f(audience)
Writing an audit report is serious business. But for auditors, it usually is one of the last things to do before closing the audit job and going to the next one. Not all auditors writing the audit report are necessarily familiar with the audience of their report. And that results in a failure to hit … Continue reading Tone & content audit report = f(audience)
The (in)flexibility of corporate governance
Thinking about corporate governance When we think about corporate governance, most if us think about a large and quite often unwieldy set of organisational structures and processes which keep the organisation aligned and on course towards its explicit objectives. And that is what governance has been portrayed as ... An immovable aspect of an organisation, … Continue reading The (in)flexibility of corporate governance
Audit interviews: exploratory versus digging questions
Failing to bring home the goods I believe most of us have been in a situation such as the following: we send out a young staff member on an interview, most often one of their first, only to have them come back with less than the information we expected them to. Then we hit ourselves … Continue reading Audit interviews: exploratory versus digging questions
Marketeers all the way
Turtles all the way There's this story I must have read in one of Terry Pratchett's wonderful diskworld novels. In a conference open to the public, a scientist is approached by an older lady. She contests the round world hypothesis and points out that the world is a disk, carried on four elephants, who stand … Continue reading Marketeers all the way
A lean government needs strategic internal audit
In the short period of 1999 to 2003, the Belgian federal government was making some real progress, at least conceptually, in improving its functioning. The Copernicus reform, which eventually failed, had some essential ideas on how to turn the Belgian federal public sector into a (reasonably) lean organisation. Come the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and we … Continue reading A lean government needs strategic internal audit
Some thoughts on note taking for internal auditors
There is a lot of information available on academic note taking Good note taking is a craft all by itself. Look at any website of any itself respecting college or university and you will find at least one class on advanced note taking skills. Do a search on the web and you will find many … Continue reading Some thoughts on note taking for internal auditors
Exploring The Black Box 