With audit reform on the agenda at the European Commission, the ECIIA participated in a timely round table discussion on the issue of how to improve interaction between external and internal audit.
“Good coordination between internal and external audit adds real value and increases the effectiveness of corporate governance,” Marie Hélène Laimay, ECIIA Vice President, said at the event. “Organisations should not see the exercise as a cost burden because it opens the road to increased transparency for stakeholders.”
Nathalie Berger, Head of Unit, Audit and Credit Rating Agencies, DG MARKT/F4 at the European Commission, said that one of the lessons from the financial crisis was that standards about relations between internal and external auditors were not standardised in the European Union. She explained the enhanced role that audit committees would have to help coordinate the two functions under the proposed reforms.
Isabelle Tracq-Sengeissen, CNCC Auditing Standard Board Vice President and a member of FEE’s Auditing Working Party, said that the key success factors for effective collaboration included, open dialogue, coordination and good communication, especially in the early stages of the audit process.
Sajjad Karim MEP hosted the event, which took place on 12 November 2013 in Brussels.
Read the ECIIA’s position paper: Improving cooperation between internal and external audit
View Marie Hélène Laimay’s presentation
View Nathalie Berger’s presentation
View Isabelle Tracq-Sengeissen’s presentation