Auditing Approach - Staff auditing their own area

J

JaneB

#11
Did they say anything about studying the relevant documentation before you start asking questions? Was it mentioned that an internal auditor should have studied the process controls beforehand, so they would know the answer before they asked any questions?
Yes indeed, this is essential! Any competent internal auditor should have already done this as part of their preparation for the audit.
 
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somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#12
This morning, I read a white paper about auditing approach.

The approaches lsited are:

- Use a checklist.
- Use a process auditing approach.
- Use an element-by-element approach.
- Internal staff audit.

The one that raised my curiosity alert was the last one.

And I quote:

Each staff person shall conduct an audit in their area based on the procedures they use in their job role.

Now, my questions:

Ever used that last approach?
Do you think it would be effective to use this kind of approach?
Ever heard/read of this kind of approach in an Auditor Training?

Thank you for consideration and replies (in advance ;) )
When an internal audit is planned, this must be one of the main criteria, however it boils down to the clarity and sincearity of the internal audit purpose.
Anyone can assess their own work and be transparent to themselves and pick areas for corrective action and improvement.
In smaller organizations and with people performing various functions, if it so happens that one has audited his own area and that the audit was indeed reflecting the process and interactions and has captured the performance to the requirement, does not kill the internal auditing spirit.
It is always good to check and balance this when an internal audit program is planned and in spite of best efforts if a case of own area audit is found effectively done, so be it.
I would always look for audit effectiveness more than who audited what.
 
J

JaneB

#13
Anyone can assess their own work and be transparent to themselves and pick areas for corrective action and improvement.
In smaller organizations and with people performing various functions, if it so happens that one has audited his own area and that the audit was indeed reflecting the process and interactions and has captured the performance to the requirement, does not kill the internal auditing spirit.
Somashekar, let us not mix up auditing of one's own work and auditing in one's own area.

While I agree with you that anyone can assess their own work and look for improvements, no one can be objective enough to audit their own work. And ISO 9001 is quite clear about the requirement here, stipulating that "Auditors shall not audit their own work".

But there is no such stricture against auditing your own area, which I take to mean the area in which you work. It may or may not be a good thing to avoid your own area (there are arguments for and against, it really depends), but there is no prohibition against it. While some larger companies can and do audit other people's areas, medium and smaller companies don't always have the size and capacity to do this.

So if, just for argument's sake, you were an internal auditor in a test lab, you would not and could not audit any tests that you did yourself nor any tests that you signed off on. But you absolutely could audit tests that other people had done.
 
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