'How Internal Auditing Has Become Sexy', The Times

"If ever there were a forgotten grouping within the accounting profession it is the internal auditors... but over the years everything has changed. The internal audit function is now seen as being at the heart of a business. Two factors have turned their world upside down. The first has been the growing obsession of business with risk management and the second the Turnbull Report... Internal auditors could become risk managers... Risk management, as any reader of management books knew, was suddenly the sexiest discipline to be in."

"... companies are discovering the long-term damage of such a strategy (out- sourcing internal audit). In the past, much of the accounting expertise grew out of the experience that people gained in the internal auditing department before they move into wider line management positions. If you outsource the function then that career development process vanishes. The steady creation of financial controllers for the future dries up."

"Within a company, a good internal audit function and an effective audit committee remain the best safeguard there is.""

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