Does Internal Audit Create Value?

Abstract

Over the last few decades various financial scandals have occurred involving large organisations such as Enron and World-Com in the early 2000s, until those scandals academia had not realised its little knowledge about the internal audit function (IAF). After the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) (2002) in the United States and Bill 198 (2002) in Canada, the IAF quickly gained more visibility and many studies began to explore this new research avenue. Past papers indicate that a strong, independent and competent internal audit could have avoided some scandals by detecting the fraud that was going on in these fraudulent companies. Having this in mind, this research has tried to identify the main challenges faced by an internal audit department and evaluate the main values generated by the IAF. The main objective of this research was to explore the management perception of the internal audit department, to do that a case study with professionals in Brazil from different industries was conducted, the participants of this study were divided between internal auditors and members of management. The study findings suggest that the management perception in relation to the IAF has been changing positively over the years. In most companies analysed, the professionals point out a change in the management consideration of the internal audit suggestions and recommendation, and in some cases the internal audit department is consulted by manager before they make strategic decision.