MichaelUK
Posts: 5
Joined: Dec 2010
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Thursday August 16, 2012 7:46 AM
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I've been tasked with auditing our property department. It has never been audited before, I have never audited it before, and there is no risk register, so I'm working from the ground up (if you pardon the ever so poor pun).
We're a national (UK) retailer with over 250 units, as well as several distribution centres, head office, etc.
The audit is to be all encompassing, and for that reason, I'm hoping for some suggestions.
I'm only at the very early stages of planning, so if anyone has any experience of this type of work, please feel free to share. Like-wise, if anyone has any sort of programme that I could extract relevent areas from, that'd be a huge help too?
Thanks,
Michael
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Mark R. Simmons
Posts: 133
Joined: Nov 2003
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Thursday August 23, 2012 10:16 AM
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<< ... The audit is to be all encompassing... >>
(a) What does that mean?
Are you performing an internal audit in accordance with the IPPF, or something else? The standards you apply govern the underlying philosophy of your audit, and therefore your approach. The IPPF is about reasonable assurance risk, governance and control practices are effective; other standards might focus on whether financial or operational information is presented accurately and fairly; yet other standards might focus on whether department/program objectives have been met efficiently and effectively (compliance with policies and procedures).
<< ...at the very early stages of planning, so if anyone has any experience of this type of work, please feel free to share... >>
(b) Risk is the starting point
Regardless of the standards you follow, to make an efficient and effective audit, your starting point has to be risk exposure and perceived degree of mitigation. Does your organization's culture encourage collaboration with the responsible and cognizant managers in identification of risks and the stratagies in place to mitigate those risks. Or are you expected to be some sort of outside expert, and if so, in what context. Will you require outside research or expert assistance to identify property management risks and related mitigation in order to exercise the required level of gravitas with the responsible and cognizant managers (who undoubtedly will know more than you do about the property management arena)?
<< ...any sort of programme that I could extract relevent areas from... >>
That depends on (a) and (b) above. Until you have a better sense of what the business risks are and what the audit objective is, it's impossible to suggest the most helpful audit approach to use. Once you've established these, and within the framework of the standards governing your audit, you can break your work down into component parts/objectives and decide what needs to be done within each component and to what level of detail. At that point you can start looking for specific audit programs that will help you achieve your audit objective.
These are just thoughts off the top of my head, and my own humble opinion.
Edited: Thursday August 23, 2012 at 10:26 AM by Mark R. Simmons
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