EQA AS A TOOL FOR REPOSITIONING INTERNAL AUDIT FOR STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

Signs of A troubled Internal Audit

Gobal surveys from credible companies showed that globally, over the years the internal audit profession has continued evolved and making progressive improvements inline with stakeholders expectations and market dynamics. These positive changes have been driven primarily by the following:

• better understanding of the company business models and GRC components.
• end-to-end automations and tight integration of Core and Support Business functions (ERP, banking applications, etc.) and GRC Management systems including ESG,
• Effective Use of Predictive Data analytics for data mining and insights.
• Early AI adaptation
• Implementation of Combined Assurance Model integration the three lines of defense assurance functions to achieve audit effectiveness and efficiencies.

However, a large number of organizations in many jurisdictions are still struggling in delivering audit excellence. The root cause is mostly attributed to knowledge gap and limited funding. In such organizations the results of the PwC Global Survey of 2016 are still relevant today. These findings are clear indications of an underperforming internal audit function.