[EMAIL PROTECTED]
All or none of these can or should be your performance indicators. Each has it's measurement value and what I term mis-measures. Think, most can figure out the positive, so let me talk about the negatives:
Number of reports: I lot of small, perhaps meaningless, reports should not be used to make an IA shop appear to be doing good things. Also, the needs of an organization change. Some periods need a few good, large audits. IA should not be penalized for this; it is a function of risk - something IA has limited control over!
Recommendations implemented: Hey, I can get 100% of my recommendations implemented. I just don't make any the auditee's will not implement. The quality and validity of recommendations is what is important. Also, good audits do not necessarily have many recommendations. That is, when you audit a high risk area that is well run & controlled, you are going to have few recommendations, but you still need to audit it & do it well!
Achieving set plan: Fosters inflexibility. And in today's' fast paced and quickly changing organizations and operations, this can be a very negative way to conduct and evaluate IA. I worked somewhere where management had a goal of completing a minimum of 75 of the audit plan. Some years that was easy & some years it was not!
Frauds unraveled: The first assumes the IA shop has a comprehensive knowledge about everything! And we all know this is not true, even in the biggest & best IA shops. Second, if you organization is overall well run, you will have fewer frauds. So If I am going to be evaluation on frauds, let me work at a place poorly controlled & run - I will be a super star, without really working much!
Dollarizing findings: A trap too many audit shops fall in to! Yes, dollarize when appropriate. But, don't make it the only, or even major way to assess IA shops. Good IA shops will have audits with few findings due to a well run operation. Management still needs to know things are going the way they intended! And there is no dollarization possible in these audits! And many important findings / recommendation have to do with control processes or efficiency & effectiveness, which frequently cannot be easily dollarize - but which none less are very important.
HAND!
Ron Keister, CIA, CPA
*******************
My Boss who is the CEO would like me to come up with key performance indicators against which h would measure my performance. He requires them to
be SMART ( specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based).I have gone through with him my annual plan, budget, etc but he insists these
do not suffice. In my proposed indicators l have included such things as no of reports, recommendations implemented, budget performance, achieving set
plan etc. This to him is not sufficient and he wants me to include such things as No. of frauds unravelled compared to previous years in dollars and quantity terms, reported against those determined by audit, etc. Can you suggest more indicators for me please
