The internal audit of large state-owned enterprises needs to realize "five major changes"

The internal audit of large state-owned enterprises needs to realize "five major changes"

Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the world economic situation is complicated, the real economy has been hit hard, and many super-enterprise giants are in trouble in the crisis. Faced with the profound changes brought about by the international financial crisis, as well as the current situation of rapid expansion in scale and substantial improvement in strength, large state-owned enterprises must rethink their strategic positioning and business model, reorganize their management processes and operating mechanisms, solve the contradictions brought about by rapid development in time, and eliminate the problems and hidden dangers in management in time. Strengthening the supervision and consultation of internal audit is an urgent need to effectively ensure the sustained and healthy development of large state-owned enterprises.

In order to meet the needs of the sustained and healthy development of large state-owned enterprises under the new situation, promote the scientific development of internal audit in enterprises, and make internal audit a promoter of enterprise value-added, risk prevention and operational efficiency, large state-owned enterprises should strive to promote the realization of internal audit at present and in the future? Five major changes? That is, the function of internal audit should be changed from error detection to value management, the focus of internal audit should be changed from financial revenue and expenditure audit to management audit, the gateway of internal audit should be changed from post-supervision to process control, the organizational system of internal audit should be changed from decentralized management to centralized management, and the way of internal audit should be changed from on-site inspection to remote online auxiliary audit.

First of all, the function of internal audit should be changed from finding mistakes and preventing fraud to adding value.

In recent years, the function of internal audit has gradually changed from finding mistakes and preventing fraud to helping enterprises add value. At the beginning of this century, the International Association of Internal Auditors adopted a new definition of internal audit, emphasizing that internal audit is an independent and objective consulting activity aimed at improving the operation of institutions and increasing their value. The new definition puts forward that audit has value-added function for the first time, and thinks that internal audit should evaluate and improve the effect of risk management, internal control and governance procedures through systematic and standardized methods to help enterprises achieve strategic goals. Judging from the practice of internal audit in large international enterprises, the mainstream trend is that the function orientation of internal audit changes to management orientation. Many large foreign enterprises, such as American General Electric and Italian Fiat Group, have adopted it? Value added? This kind of internal audit orientation.

At present, some senior decision makers of some large state-owned enterprises in China have some deviations in their views on the internal audit function. The main purpose of enterprise internal audit is still to check mistakes and prevent disadvantages. However, internal auditors lack modern enterprise management knowledge and are not proficient in auditing theory and methods, so it is difficult to make effective audit analysis, evaluation and management rectification suggestions for enterprise management. Turning the internal audit function into value-added will help large state-owned enterprises to optimize the allocation of resources between the traditional internal prevention and error correction functions and strategic value management activities, and help enterprises achieve their strategic development goals.

Among the large domestic enterprises, China Petrochemical has made a new attempt in value-added internal audit: integrating the independent analysis and research of enterprise scientific management into the audit process to help find out the institutional problems existing in production and operation management. The Audit Department regularly reports the suggestions on corporate governance environment, operation mode and business process formed in the audit process to the management and decision-making level of the company in the form of special materials to help enterprises strengthen management and successfully achieve strategic objectives. For example, the Group Audit Office pointed out the main reasons for the company's increased losses in the investigation report, and put forward a number of targeted and constructive audit suggestions. This attempt makes the internal audit no longer stay at the financial level, but make full use of the tool of internal audit to provide services, evaluation and consultation for the business of enterprises and improve the management level of enterprises.

For China's large state-owned enterprises, we should adapt to the new situation, learn from the advanced experience of Italian Fiat Group and China Petrochemical, and strengthen the management-oriented internal audit from the enterprise's own value goal. The management audit with value-added function will become an important auxiliary force for large state-owned enterprises to improve their management level and operation mechanism.

In the process of transforming large state-owned enterprises into value-added, we should pay attention to the following three aspects: First, enterprise leaders should strengthen the position and role of internal audit, so that the role of internal audit is not limited to? Home economics? And then what? Guard? Level, but through the supervision, service, evaluation and consultation of internal audit, play well? Diagnosis? And then what? Value added? Function to help enterprises protect and create value; The second is to establish a mechanism for hiring and retaining excellent audit talents, make a reasonable evaluation of internal auditors, and establish the career planning and positioning of audit talents. Quasi-manager? The transitional mechanism of attracting and retaining value-added audit talents; The third is to formulate a detailed and detailed audit transformation plan. Audit supervisors need to fully communicate with business managers, understand business needs, and make value-added internal audit plans to maximize? Win-win? .

Two, the focus of internal audit should be changed from financial revenue and expenditure audit to management audit.

Modern internal audit has experienced the evolution from traditional financial-oriented internal audit to value-added management audit. With the development of the times, the audit task of enterprise internal audit, which focuses on the compliance of financial revenue and expenditure and the authenticity of operating results, is gradually replaced by the external audit of certified public accountants. Nowadays, the focus of international internal audit has gradually shifted to management audit, and the field of internal audit has expanded from the traditional financial revenue and expenditure audit to the major decisions of enterprises, business processes and authorization responsibilities, major risk points and their control, the security of large amounts of funds, the implementation process and effect of projects, and the effectiveness of internal control systems. Many multinational companies such as GE and ABB Group are typical examples of implementing management audit.

Among domestic enterprises, China Electronics has actively carried out risk-oriented audit supervision and achieved certain results. Since 2009, the Audit Department has carried out audit trail of capital operation and internal control audit of process management for the functional departments of the company. For example, the company has strengthened the risk review of major business decisions such as enterprise restructuring, reorganization and mergers and acquisitions, paid more attention to subsidiaries with abnormal business fluctuations, and actively carried out follow-up auditing and risk control of engineering projects. This kind of risk-oriented internal audit is helpful for enterprises to check and correct the operation mechanism of each project at any time, promote enterprises to continuously improve their internal control system and management performance, and effectively prevent risks.

Large state-owned enterprises can follow the advanced experience of Qantas and China Electric Power Branch, carry out management audits focusing on business processes and internal control systems, regularly check and correct major decisions, business processes and authorized responsibilities, major risk points and their control, the safety of large sums of money, the implementation process and effect of projects, the effectiveness of internal control systems, etc., so as to promote enterprises to continuously improve internal control systems, improve management performance, effectively prevent risks and enhance immunity.

In the process of transition to management audit, large state-owned enterprises should pay attention to the following three aspects: first, set up a professional management audit team as soon as possible and recruit people with relevant management experience to carry out management audit work; The second is to clarify the value orientation of management audit, and determine the content and focus of management audit according to the business field and operating conditions of the group; Thirdly, the tasks of traditional financial-oriented audit and management audit should be reasonably distributed, and the proportion of management audit should be gradually increased on the basis of ensuring traditional financial-oriented audit.

Third, the internal audit portal should be engaged in the transformation from post-supervision to process control.

The international financial crisis warns us that business mistakes and out-of-control risks will bring devastating disasters to enterprises, and process control is far more important than making up afterwards. It is a global development trend to standardize the internal audit process and control the quality gates. To truly become an enterprise's self-immune system, internal audit must move forward, attach importance to any audit, decision-making audit and process audit, promote benefit distribution and risk control, and give full play to the service functions of internal audit such as evaluation and consultation. Standardized and standardized internal audit emphasizes the supervision and control of the whole process of enterprise operation. The typical foreign case is Barclays Group.