Quality of the Internal Audit Function

During the year, 120 agreed management actions arising from internal audit engagements fell due. Of these, 84 were implemented by their due date, 18 were implemented after it and 18 remain open. The function reports the percentage of due actions implemented on time. What is the figure?

An internal audit function's approved budget for the year was $1,200,000, and its actual cost was $1,290,000. The scorecard reports the cost variance as the overspend as a percentage of the approved budget. What should the scorecard show?

Which measure best indicates the effectiveness of an internal audit function in improving the organization's risk management and control?

A chief audit executive groups performance measures into financial, operational, quality and effectiveness categories. Which measure belongs in the financial category?

What is the main objective of the key performance indicators that a chief audit executive reports to the board?

A chief audit executive proposes measuring each audit team on the number of findings it reports. What is the main risk of this indicator?

Which of the following is a qualitative performance indicator for an internal audit function?

Several of a function's indicators missed their targets this year. How should the chief audit executive present them to senior management and the board?

A chief audit executive's quarterly scorecard contains 45 performance measures, and board members say they cannot tell how the function is doing. What is the best response?

The board of a family-owned manufacturer has not approved the internal audit charter for two years, saying it sees the charter as a management matter. What should the chief audit executive do?

An external quality assessment concludes that a telecom company's internal audit function does not conform with the requirements on engagement planning. What should the chief audit executive do?

When internal auditors are unable to conform with a requirement of the Standards, what information should the chief audit executive document and communicate?

An internal audit function has not had an external quality assessment for over six years. Its engagement reports state that work was done in conformance with the Standards. What should the chief audit executive do?

A manufacturer is choosing who will perform its internal audit function's external quality assessment. Which candidate is most acceptable?

The chief audit executives of two neighboring hospital trusts agree that each will lead the external quality assessment of the other's internal audit function. What is the main problem with this arrangement?

What is the board's appropriate role in relation to the external quality assessment of the internal audit function?

A chief audit executive wants to meet the external assessment requirement in the most economical way that is still acceptable. Which approach is acceptable?

Which situation most supports carrying out an external quality assessment earlier than the minimum interval requires?

Under the Standards, how often must an external quality assessment of the internal audit function be performed, at a minimum?

After an external quality assessment, what should the chief audit executive's communication to the board include?

Which of the following best describes the scope of an external quality assessment of an internal audit function?

What does an external quality assessment provide that internal assessments cannot?

A periodic self-assessment finds that auditors at a hospital group rate similar findings very differently. What is the most effective improvement action?

An internal audit function's only quality activity is a review of a sample of engagements once a year. Engagements have no documented supervisory review. Which improvement is most needed?

A chief audit executive tracks, every month, the share of engagements whose working papers pass supervisory review without major rework. How does this metric fit into the quality program?

At the end of each engagement, a retailer's internal audit function sends a short survey to the audited managers about the engagement's usefulness and professionalism. Results are reviewed every month. In the quality program, this activity is best classed as:

Once a year, a senior auditor at a university who did not work on the engagements selects a sample of completed engagements and checks them against the methodology and the Standards, reporting the results to the chief audit executive. This activity is best described as:

A chief audit executive plans to report quality results to the board only after each external assessment. What is the main gap in this approach?

In a self-assessment with independent validation, how are the roles typically divided?

The chief audit executive of a pension fund proposes that the quality program cover only assurance engagements, leaving out advisory work, planning and the function's administration. What is wrong with this proposal?

A cooperative bank's internal audit function consists of the chief audit executive alone. How should the quality program be handled?

A periodic self-assessment finds that the team on a cybersecurity engagement left out several elements of the applicable Topical Requirement and did not record why. What does this indicate?