Congratulations to the IIA’s Standards Board for the substantial upgrade to the draft they released last year. It can never be perfect (and still has flaws that I consider important), but it is 1,000% better and now merits our careful attention. You can find GIAS here on the IIA Global website.
Hal Garyn has shared with us an excellent approach. My only addition would be to consider not only what standards should be adopted as they stand, which should be tailored to our specific needs, and which are not relevant, but also what is missing.
I am not going to write today about the purpose statement, the principles and standards I like, or those that I think do not meet my test of:
- Are they necessary for effective and efficient internal auditing? In other words, do you have to comply (“conformance” is the same thing but just sounds better) to be effective?
- Are they excessive? Will compliance lead to inefficiencies?
No. I am neither here to bury nor to praise the document.
I want to share below a 6 page version that contains only the Purpose Statement, the Principles, and the main part of each Standard. The IIA has released a “Condensed version” of “only” 60+ pages. You can find my more condensed version of less than half that length (it is not an authorized version, but I have not added a single…
