The following are some situations that coexist in the relationship between the teams of internal audit and compliance or compliance teams:
· The compliance area is not a subarea of internal audit. Pejorative tones are often attributed by those who are technically unaware of the function and objective of each of these areas, often disqualifying them, which disadvantages both the internal audit and the compliance area. The compliance or compliance area is a management function. On the other hand, internal audit is independent of management functions and oversees these activities. Internal audit should never treat the compliance team as part of the audit team.
· As in several occurrences around the world, the compliance or compliance area is the first part to be reported by whistleblowers, but what you see is that it may be the last part to be considered for carrying out investigations. In some ways, compliance investigations are complex and involve a unique set of skills, and can be easily sidetracked if not handled subtly. Nevertheless, compliance is an excellent source of internal audit to mitigate legal problems encountered in the course of the investigations.
· A internal audit is focused and attentive to the existence and efficiency of internal controls. The compliance team is not necessarily experienced in internal controls and organizational processes. In essence, their training and experience encompasses a low understanding of internal controls and their relevance. In this sense, an adequate partnership between internal audit and compliance will allow the transfer of knowledge, which is fundamental to address these controls specifically and to be able to build a solid line of defense against irregularities.
· Presenting to a company's board words associated with a negative – no! – It can be admitted that the area is not sensitive to the organization's strategies. Not quite, as much as compliance has this difficulty, often questioned by its own team, the internal audit has certain propriety in when and why it should be said no! As a rule, the internal audit team is trained to analyze the monetary or non-monetary impacts to support its internal audit recommendations. With areas working side by side, internal audit would help compliance ease tension with business units and make compliance work productive.
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