CLASSIFICATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTERNAL AUDIT PRINCIPLES

The modern requirements to the risk-oriented internal audit necessitate establishment of an internal audit service integrated into the JSC corporate management structure. The service should focus on the provision of advice, independent and objective warranties aimed at improving the efficiency of the JSC functioning and risk management. The review of scientific and economic literature regarding the issues of formation and development of the internal audit within the Commonwealth of Independent States has shown that the internal audit is currently at the stage of its scientific and practical development. Presently, the internal audit cannot be treated as a fully developed academic field with a well-established theoretical background.This is due to the fact that the development,establishment,methodology and organization of the internal audit are influenced by the developments in theoretical and methodological approaches, formed within generally accepted systems of internal control, auditing and management. These conditions require further study and theoretical justification of the internal audit as a field of theoretical and special knowledge, formed under the influence of practice. The article presents classification of the internal audit principles, and gives their expanded characteristics. The article summarizes the results of the author’s research, conducted between 2008 and 2013. In the paper,a system approach is used along with general research methods and methodological techniques aimed at identifying and providing a scientific rationale for key issues addressed in the paper, namely: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction, generalization, comparison and justification. Based on the results of the taxonomic analysis, the author puts forward his own approach according to which the basic principles of the internal audit are classified into the following six groups: ethical principles, methodological principles, professional internal audit principles, organizational principles, internal audit effectiveness principles and audit quality control principles. Using the classification and characteristics of the internal audit principles proposed in the article will, on the one hand, give a theoretical justification of the internal audit. On the other hand, in the process of development of in-house standards, they will allow the head of the internal audit service (IAS) to draw a clear distinction between principles that should form the basis of the IAS functioning.

internal audit, internal audit principles, risk-based internal audit, riskmanagement, corporate management system

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