Audit Team Lead – Timothy E. Allen | Former Special Agent (U.S. Secret Service & DOJ-OIG)
A Quality Assurance Review (QAR) is an audit of your corporation’s internal auditing process.
While this may sound like a step too far in the internal auditing process, it is such a highly-recommended aspect of the corporate compliance scheme that the Institute of Internal Auditors requires them to be performed regularly. Without a QAR, corporations cannot take the results of their internal auditing team without question. Those results may be the result of bias, a flawed auditing system, or a systemic failure to hold up to the best practices in the auditing industry. Without a QAR, corporations cannot rule these possibilities out, and cannot rest assured that they are making decisions based on reliable information.
The auditing professionals at Corporate Investigation Consulting have performed countless Quality Assurance Reviews for companies across the United States, both large and small. Our auditors have uncovered serious issues with internal auditing protocols in numerous companies, exposing risks of legal liabilities and business inefficiencies that had been covered up by flawed auditing procedures that had failed to find the problem. This has helped decision makers take the right moves to protect their companies from lost revenue streams and allegations of misconduct that could lead to legal liability.
Quality Assurance Reviews Audit the Auditors
Internal audits look at the inner workings of a corporation to find inefficiencies that are losing the company revenue or potential legal liabilities that could cost the business money or hurt its reputation and brand. Internal audits are an essential part of doing business, though many company stakeholders may not want them to be. Expanding a business and making it grow are often the focus of corporate decision makers. Reviewing what the business does to insulate it from threats and make it perform better is far less interesting.
However, the value of any internal audit is limited by an important factor: The quality of the audit, itself. Internal audits can be done well or can be done poorly. If they are done poorly, the results can create a false sense of security.
Unfortunately, it can be nearly impossible for inexperienced eyes to tell the difference between a good and a bad audit. Most of the problems that can undermine the reliability of an audit are made behind the scenes. They are also generally the result of negligence or outdated auditing techniques, rather than any intentional conduct. As a result, the internal audit’s findings may appear to be legitimate and reliable enough for the company to act on them, without any indication or inkling that this is not the case. This can put the corporation in a bad position, as the thought process that led to an important decision would have been based on inaccurate information.
By conducting a quality assurance review, or QAR, companies can ensure that their internal audits are producing results and findings that are, in fact, reliable enough to use as the basis for future decisions.
Put our highly experienced team on your side
Roger Bach
Former Special Agent (OIG)
Timothy E. Allen
Former Senior Special Agent U.S. Secret Service
Chris J. Quick
Former Special Agent (FBI & IRS-CI)
Maura Kelley
Former Special Agent (FBI)
Ray Yuen
Former Supervisory Special Agent (FBI)
Michael S. Koslow
Former Supervisory Special Agent (DOD-OIG)
Marquis D. Pickett
Special Agent U.S. Secret Service (ret.)
Two Types of QARs
Generally speaking, there are two types of QARs that a corporation can conduct on its internal auditing team:
- Full external assessments
- Internal assessments with external validation
Each has benefits and drawbacks. Both require input from outside the company.
Fully External QARs
A fully external QAR is an audit of the corporation’s auditing protocols that is done entirely independently of the company. To conduct a fully external QAR, a corporation would hire an auditing company that is completely independent from the corporation. That auditing company would then review the internal auditing system that the corporation uses for its internal audits.
The benefits of a fully external QAR are obvious: A completely new and independent set of eyes on the corporation’s auditing process. There is no concern about bias or conflicts of interest affecting the results of the QAR and hiding any shortcomings of the corporation’s auditing team.
Fully external QARs, though, are generally more expensive. The external auditing agency is tasked with the entire QAR, which needs to be thorough and can take a long time to complete.
Internal QARs with External Validation
QARs can also be done by the corporation’s internal auditing team, so long as there is independent, external validation of the QAR to ensure that it was effective and did not just cover up the auditing team’s shortfalls.
Internal QARs are less expensive than completely external ones, as the internal auditing team does much of the legwork. However, these self-assessments can also be less reliable: The external, independent auditor will not have directly conducted the assessment, putting them in a position where it can be difficult to gauge the reliability of the process.
The Subtle But Understated Benefits of a QAR
By reviewing a corporation’s internal auditing procedures, companies can ensure that they are getting the right facts about their exposures to legal liability and the efficiency of their business practices.
The value of this is difficult to understate.
Companies that conduct internal audits rely heavily on the outcomes of the audit. If there was any indication that those results could not be trusted, it would completely undermine the point of the process.
QARs answer that question. They investigate how internal audits are done at the corporation – both in theory and in practice – and give corporations a better idea of the reliability of the results that those audits produce for the company.
The benefits of a QAR are easier to appreciate by looking at what would happen in their absence. Companies that never conduct a QAR end up using data to make important corporate decisions that was produced by internal auditors who may or may not be counted upon to provide accurate information. If that is the case, what is the point of running an internal audit?
Regular QARs are Required by Auditing Standards
The value of a QAR is so significant that the International Standards for the Professional Practices of Internal Auditing, published by the Institute of Internal Auditors, requires them. Standard 1312 states that these external assessments must be conducted by qualified and independent assessors from outside the organization at least once every five years.
Frequently Asked Questions About Quality Assurance Reviews and Corporate Investigation Consulting
Are There Any Drawbacks to Conducting a Quality Assurance Review?
Aside from the costs of conducting the audit – both in time and money – there are no major drawbacks to conducting a QAR. Nevertheless, many corporations fail to take this essential step because they are confident that their auditing team is working well. Few stakeholders think to question whether the results of an audit are reliable or not. They simply use the audit’s result to inform them how to move the company forward.
On the other hand, not performing a QAR, and not performing one regularly, lets the corporate auditing team veer away from the path of reliability through negligence, declining standards of perfection, cost cutting measures, or comfort. Unreliability tends to seep into these situations slowly and almost imperceptibly. It is not until a business decision goes awry – sometimes terribly – that companies think to question the accuracy of the internal audits that they have been conducting.
By performing a QAR, companies can avoid that misinformed business decision, potentially saving themselves millions of dollars and a tarnished reputation for excellence.
Why Should I Consider Corporate Investigation Consulting to Conduct a QAR?
The auditing professionals at Corporate Investigation Consulting have extensive experience in the field and unique backgrounds as auditors and investigators at some of the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world, including at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They have audited taxes, healthcare billings, and reams of financial transactions – often from major corporations that have their own internal auditing teams. That experience has given our auditing professionals plenty of insight into how some internal auditing teams at large corporations can frequently fail to spot serious problems, oversights, and employee and corporate misconduct.
By hiring Corporate Investigation Consulting to conduct a QAR audit at your company, you can tap into that wealth of understanding and experience to improve your corporation’s performance and further insulate it from legal liability and allegations of noncompliance.
Why Don’t You Call Yourselves the Best QAR Auditors?
The staff at Corporate Investigation Consulting is extremely experienced in QAR auditing, having performed complete QAR audits and external validations for numerous companies across the country. However, we still prefer not to call ourselves the best auditing firm in the country because we would rather our work speak for itself.
QAR Audits By Corporate Investigation Consulting
Conducting a QAR pays substantial dividends, particularly over the long run. They allow corporations to make decisions based on evidence and data discovered by internal audits that they know they can rely on. This helps stakeholders and corporate officers make informed decisions based on reliable data, rather than on false assurances and a misplaced sense of security and confidence.
The consulting professionals at Corporate Investigation Consulting can help.
Whether you need skilled, talented, and experienced auditing professionals to conduct a fully independent assessment of your corporation’s internal auditing protocols or to review an internal QAR and provide external validation for its findings and processes, Corporate Investigation Consulting is among the most trusted names in the business.
Call our offices at (866) 352-9324 or contact us online.