Of the 17 audits the new Internal Audit Department set out to complete last year in its audit plan, 13 were finished, according to the IAD annual report tabled at the House of Assembly on June 29.
The agency was established as a unit under the Ministry of Finance in 1991, but the 2011 Internal Audit Act gave it department status and granted its staff “full, free and unrestricted access to any and all of … [the] records, physical properties and personnel, relevant to any function under review” at any government agency being audited, the report states.
According to the report, which is dated March 22, the IAD exists to “provide a management service by measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of internal controls and the efficiency of operational systems.”
Even as a full-fledged department, however, it still faced challenges, wrote Dorea Corea, acting IAD director, in the report.
Chief among the challenges was slow-to-respond staff in the government agencies being audited, she wrote.
See the July 12, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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