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So, what should an internal audit of today focus on. What are likely to be key risk areas. KPMG's report titled "Focus Areas for Internal Audit" identifies the following as key areas that should be on radar of any good internal auditor.

  • Foreign Exchange Management
  • Cost Management
  • Capital Projects
  • Large Scale IT implementations
  • International Expansion/Entry Into Emerging Markets
  • Talent Management and Succession Planning
  • Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)
  • Information Security/Data Privacy
  • Extended Enterprise/3rd Parties/Joint Ventures
  • Culture
  • Cloud Computing
  • Social Media
  • Mobile Devices
  • Regulatory Compliance
  • Environmental and Sustainability Risks As we can see, many of these areas are some of the recent developments in businesses such as mobile phones, social media such as facebook, cloud computing. In a nutshell, if a lot of business is being done or affected by latest technologies and infrastructure, trends, then internal auditor needs to capture these in the audit program and have a specific focus area. Usually, these new and emerging trends are most prone to risks. Full document may be downloaded from the following link. http://www.in.kpmg.com/Misc/Focus%20area%20for%20Internal%20Audit_FINAL.pdf