First, the research background
After the establishment of the National Audit Office in 1983, the state successively promulgated a series of laws and regulations, and the internal audit work system of mainland state-owned enterprises began to be gradually established. In 1985, the State Council issued the "Interim Provisions on Internal Auditing", and in 1992, the State Audit Office issued the "Improving the Internal Audit System to Enhance the Vitality of Large and Medium-sized Enterprises", since then, internal auditing has become increasingly rich in theoretical and practical discussions and exchanges, and internal audit has played a useful role in promoting enterprises to strengthen internal management, establish and improve self-restraint mechanisms, and improve economic efficiency. In 2004, with the issuance of the "Interim Measures for the Management of Internal Audit of Central Enterprises" and the "Interim Measures for the Management of The Economic Responsibility audit of Central Enterprises" issued by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the requirements of the state for the internal audit of state-owned enterprises have become clearer and more specific, and the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises has begun to enter the fast lane of development. In 2018, in order to further improve the quality of internal audit work and give full play to the role of internal audit, the National Audit Office issued the Provisions of the National Audit Office on Internal Audit Work. In the same year, in order to strengthen the party's leadership over the audit work, the Central Committee established the Central Audit Committee. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the first meeting of the Central Audit Committee that "it is necessary to strengthen the guidance and supervision of internal audit work, mobilize the strength of internal audit and social audit, and enhance the joint force of audit supervision", which not only points out the direction but also puts forward higher requirements for the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises.
Over the past three decades, the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises has developed from scratch and made great progress, which has played a positive role in deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises, improving the modern enterprise system, and optimizing the layout of the state-owned economy. Specifically, it is manifested in: First, the internal audit work mechanism of state-owned enterprises is becoming more and more mature. With the continuous advancement of the modern enterprise system, various enterprises have successively set up special audit committees, which are committed to standardizing the institutional settings, personnel allocation, professional ability and professional ethics construction of the internal audit department, guiding the construction of the internal control mechanism of the enterprise, supervising the effective operation of the internal audit and risk management system of the enterprise, making the internal audit mechanism increasingly mature and becoming an important part of the corporate governance structure. Second, the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises has been continuously enriched and improved. From the earliest financial revenue and expenditure audit, economic responsibility audit has gradually expanded to internal control audit, management audit, project audit, special audit, etc., the coverage of various fields of enterprise operation and management has become more and more extensive. Third, the effect of internal audit work of state-owned enterprises has been significantly improved. In addition to checking errors and preventing fraud through traditional compliance inspections and ensuring the authenticity of accounting information, it has also begun to evaluate the rationality and effectiveness of operation and management decisions and put forward suggestions for improvement, supervise the implementation of national macroeconomic regulation and control and industry policies, and play an active role in ensuring the investment direction of state-owned capital and the operational efficiency of state-owned assets.
The report of the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward a new historical orientation for China's development - socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the mainland economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and is in a period of transformation of development mode, optimization of economic structure, and transformation of growth momentum, and economic development has shifted from factor-driven, investment-driven to innovation-driven and science-and-technology-driven. In the new era environment, state-owned enterprises must vigorously improve the level of internal governance and risk management and control, improve the quality of operation and management, achieve healthy and sustainable development, achieve excellence and enlargement, give play to the role of the main body of the state-owned economy, promote the quality change, efficiency change, and power change of economic development, and show the advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics from the economic foundation.
In recent years, with the development of the economy and the progress of science and technology, internal audit work has reached a new level. On the one hand, internal audit as the "third line of defense" of enterprise risk management, the change of organizational goals under the background of the new era, the internal audit work as a space to give a higher mission requirements, on the other hand, the rapid development of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies, but also for the internal audit to extend in depth, improve audit efficiency and accuracy provides technical support, so that internal audit to play a greater role in the operation and management of enterprises.
Second, the gap and cause analysis between the current situation of internal audit work of state-owned enterprises and the functional positioning in the new era
In January 2018, the National Audit Office issued the Provisions on Internal Audit Work (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions"), which expanded the "recommendation" function of internal audit, emphasizing that while playing the supervision function, internal audit should play more of the role of consultant or staff in strategy, decision-making and management, and promote units to improve management, enhance efficiency, improve efficiency, enhance risk prevention capabilities, and put forward high requirements for internal audit. However, judging from the current practice of internal audit of state-owned enterprises in the mainland, there is still a long way to go to achieve the above goals, because there are some fundamental problems such as governance mechanisms and leadership systems, functional positioning, and vocational education systems for employees that have not been clarified and solved in theory and practice, which has constrained the development of internal audit of enterprises.
(1) The leadership system for internal audit of state-owned enterprises is not smooth
Independence is the soul of auditing and the key to its effectiveness. Compared with European and American enterprises with a relatively advanced internal audit system, the internal audit system of mainland state-owned enterprises still has the phenomenon of unsmooth leadership system, and the independence of internal audit needs to be further strengthened.
From the internal point of view, the internal audit of European and American enterprises is the inherent requirement of corporate governance, in order to solve the problem of agency caused by the separation of ownership and management rights, internal audit is directly appointed by the board of directors, and is responsible for it, the audit represents the position of the investor to supervise and inspect the operation and management of the enterprise, and the audit report is directly submitted to the audit committee of the board of directors, and this positioning independent of the management system directly determines the independence and authority of its work. In contrast, the internal audit of China's state-owned enterprises generally has the phenomenon of not separating management from review. The internal audit of a state-owned enterprise is ostensibly responsible to the board of directors, but in essence it exists as a functional department of the company, accepts the administrative leadership of the enterprise, has a parallel relationship with other functional departments, and is subject to the arrangement of the administrative system in the allocation of resources. This non-independent status means that it is difficult for internal audit to play an independent and objective supervisory role internally, and the work is stretched everywhere, the supervision of parallel functional departments is easily contradicted, and the supervision of leadership decision-making is impossible to talk about.
From the perspective of the outside of the enterprise, European and American enterprises are mainly private enterprises, the board of directors directly represents the position of the investor, internal audit is the independent behavior of the enterprise, does not need to be responsible to the external institutions of the enterprise, only need to meet the guidance and constraints of industry associations and auditing standards from the practice norms, and the reporting and management mode is simple and clear. The internal audit of mainland state-owned enterprises, which is based on the development of state auditing, does not come from the inherent needs of enterprises to improve governance. The internal audit body setup and internal audit staffing have a strong administrative appointment color, and they need to accept vertical leadership from top to bottom at the same time, which further increases the limitations and complexity of internal audit work. Internal audit institutions directly belong to the enterprise at the same level, the position promotion and remuneration incentives of the internal audit personnel are from the enterprise at the same level, but it is necessary to perform the regulatory duties entrusted by the superior enterprise to supervise the enterprise at the same level, and the internal audit is regarded by the enterprise management as a challenge to its own authority and the restriction of the right to operate and manage, which can easily lead to disharmony between the internal audit and the management of the enterprise.
At the same time, the internal audit of mainland state-owned enterprises also needs to accept multiple guidance and supervision by the National Audit Office, the Ministry of Finance, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Securities Regulatory Commission, the Banking Regulatory Commission, the Insurance Regulatory Commission and other competent departments, and the regulatory environment is complex; self-regulatory organizations such as industry associations are relatively weak, resulting in a weaker voice in internal audit based on the position of enterprises, and it is difficult to play their due role.
Because the establishment of the internal audit body of state-owned enterprises is not derived from the inherent needs of the enterprise, but mainly from the requirements of administrative supervision, the direct consequence is that the allocation of internal audit resources is unreasonable, some state-owned enterprises have not even established a separate audit department, the audit institution is set up in the financial department, or co-located with the supervision, legal affairs and other departments, the internal audit staff is insufficient, and some enterprises at the third, fourth and lower levels do not even have internal audit personnel or are concurrently served by financial personnel. Every year, tired of dealing with prescriptive actions such as economic responsibility audits, it is difficult to have the energy to plan optional actions from the needs of enterprise operation and management; some internal audit practitioners lack job qualification requirements, have a single professional background, only play the role of formal inspection, and do not have the ability to carry out in-depth business, let alone the ability to systematically identify risks and discover deep-seated problems, which affects the play of internal audit functions.
(2) The function of internal audit of state-owned enterprises is not clearly defined
At present, the senior decision-makers of some large state-owned enterprises in the mainland have a biased view on the positioning of internal audit, believing that the main role of internal audit is to check errors and prevent defects, internal auditors are not familiar with the nature of business, the mode of thinking is dogmatic, and they simply do not have the ability to evaluate and improve enterprise operation and management. Therefore, it is also decided that the focus of internal audit work is concentrated in the field of financial accounting, mainly focusing on the authenticity of accounting information, the role is no different from external audit, and the appraisal ability and appraisal effectiveness are inferior to external audit, so that internal audit becomes an indispensable chicken rib for enterprises, and the supervision function is useless to a certain extent.
The other extreme, on the contrary, is to make internal audit universal, give the audit department the right to have no forbidden areas and full coverage, and accordingly hope that internal audit will play an all-round role and find all the problems within the enterprise, no matter which link has not been found in the audit, it is attributed to the internal audit work is not in place, so that the internal audit bears too much and unreasonable work pressure.
Whether it is the role of weak dwarf internal audit or the function of universal internal audit, it means that the positioning of the internal audit function is misplaced, so that the work objectives of internal audit deviate from the reasonable track and affect the role of internal audit. Compared with U.S. companies, the value proposition of internal audit is very clear, mainly for financial security, modern internal controls and risk-oriented "service-oriented" internal audit. The field of auditing is very extensive, not only covering financial error detection and fraud prevention, protection of asset security, etc., but also involving enterprise development strategy and business decision audit, investment efficiency audit, market prosperity audit, material procurement audit, production process audit, product promotion (including advertising and promotion effect) audit, research and development audit, human resource management audit, logistics service system efficiency audit, information system design and operation audit, etc., which also has great reference significance for the functional positioning of mainland internal audit.
(III) The comprehensive ability of internal auditors of state-owned enterprises needs to be improved, and the professional growth environment is not sound enough
Internal audit work covers a wide range of aspects, involving all aspects of operation and management; internal audit work is difficult, it is necessary to clarify the business process and logic, on the basis of the content of the functional management procedures to identify the problem again; internal audit work is under great pressure, in the face of the defects and deficiencies found, it is necessary to carefully analyze the causes of the problem, so as to put forward the judgment conclusion on the nature of the problem, both to avoid the problem being expanded and demonized, adversely affecting the company's collaborative culture, It is also necessary to prevent the obstruction of the same thing from turning big things into small things and small things, and cannot play the role of vigilance as it should be.
Corresponding to the above-mentioned difficult internal audit work and the high quality requirements of internal auditors, it is the imperfect professional growth environment of internal auditors. From the source of internal auditors, most of them are not the core backbone of various departments; from the perspective of professional background, the knowledge structure is single, there are more personnel with accounting titles, there are few other majors, the lack of overall perspective on the company's operation and management, the lack of in-depth understanding of the business, these thinking restrictions make it difficult for internal audit to achieve breakthroughs in depth and breadth; from the perspective of job qualifications and follow-up education system, although in 2003 the state formulated and issued the "Implementation Measures for Internal Auditor Post Qualification Certificates". It provides a basic basis for the management of the professional qualifications of internal auditors, but the measures are relatively coarse, the identification standards are low, the identification form is single, the basic requirements for the knowledge and ability to engage in internal audit are too low, and only the qualification certificate cannot meet the requirements of the enterprise to enhance the internal audit work, and no continuing education norms similar to finance have been established; from the perspective of professional ethics needs, internal auditors and personnel from other departments of the enterprise are colleagues with each other, but they must play a supervisory role, and the objective and impartiality of the practitioners. The level of professional ethics has higher requirements; from the perspective of development channels, the actual work outlet of internal auditors is relatively limited, and within this field of work, there is a lack of professional qualification level standards and promotion channels with general social recognition.
The imperfect professional growth environment of internal auditors not only reduces the attractiveness of internal audit work to potential candidates, but also restricts the growth of internal auditors, who generally face the problem of insufficient competence, further restricting the role of internal audit functions in enterprises.
Comparatively look at the practice of European and American countries, the internal audit agency of the United States enterprise is the strongest comprehensive department within the enterprise, the most typical is GE, since the jack Welch era, the company attaches special importance to the role of the internal audit department, because the professional knowledge required for internal audit, professional judgment and communication skills are required by senior managers must have, so the internal audit personnel become the reserve army of the senior management of the enterprise, and only those with rich experience in various departments can engage in internal audit work. This guarantees the ability of the internal audit team from the source, and also ensures the attractiveness of the internal audit work.
In Germany, in order to meet the needs of a wide range of internal audit scope and play the synergy effect of different professions, there is no strict restriction on the professional background of internal auditors, but the actual quality requirements for internal auditors are higher, generally above university level, proficient in 1-2 foreign languages and computer technology. In terms of vocational training, enterprises attach great importance to the targeted professional training of internal auditors. If internal auditors want to become professionals, they must go through about half a year of training, systematically learn the auditing professional theories including auditing law, data confidentiality, engineering investment, internal control, personnel management, commodity procurement, marketing, etc., and then participate in audit practice for more than two years. The German Institute of Internal Auditors also organizes hundreds of seminars every year, inviting members to share information and exchange experiences, and promoting the continuous improvement of the skill level of practitioners of member companies.
(4) The assessment and evaluation mechanism for the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises is not clear
This point is closely related to the above mentioned that the leadership system of internal audit of state-owned enterprises is not perfect, because it faces multiple supervision and reports to multiple heads, rather than from the inherent needs of enterprises, so the assessment and evaluation of internal audit has a congenital deficiency of the lack of assessment subjects. Regulatory departments and reporting departments have work directive requirements, but do not bear the remuneration of internal audit personnel, and cannot truly exercise the assessment and evaluation function; the board of directors nominally responsible for guiding and managing internal audit work does not have the ability to evaluate internal audit due to the general lack of position; the operating management of the enterprise is the object of supervision of internal audit, and it is even more difficult to make a fair evaluation of internal audit work.
Because the assessment and evaluation has a direct impact and decisive effect on people's behavior, the ambiguity of the assessment subject brings about the ambiguity of the assessment goals, and correspondingly, the direction and focus of the internal audit work of different enterprises inevitably present a differentiated situation of "the sea is wide with fish leaping, and the sky is high and the bird flies".
Third, the transformation and upgrading needs of internal audit of state-owned enterprises in the new era environment
At present, there are many deficiencies in the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises in mainland China, and the imbalance in the development of internal audit of enterprises is particularly prominent, and the role of internal audit is generally not in place. At the same time, the organizational goals of state-owned enterprises in the new era face higher requirements, internal audit, as the "superstructure" of enterprises, must make necessary adjustments to adapt to the changes in the "economic foundation" of enterprise production and operation activities to meet the needs of the new era, so that internal audit can become the promoter of enterprise value, risk prevention and operational efficiency. In order to better play the effectiveness of internal audit, this result believes that it is necessary to make efforts through the transformation and upgrading of the following aspects.
(1) Internal audit should be advanced from checking errors and preventing fraud to revealing institutional defects
The primary responsibility of internal audit is supervision, and supervision must check and correct errors, carry out audit evaluation around regulatory priorities and important risk areas, and correct deviations and deviations from rules, order and decision-making within enterprises. However, if it only stays at the level of error detection and fraud prevention, the role of internal audit is too limited, and the living environment of internal audit will be challenged accordingly. Repeatedly carry out the work of checking errors and preventing fraud, and the audited subjects will gradually accumulate experience in how to deal with inspections, and even appear "two skins" of daily operation and inspection records. At the same time, the superficial error detection and fraud prevention can also easily lead to internal audit to pick up formal small problems and nitpick, and the problems found are trivial, cannot be recognized and valued by the audited object, and are not conducive to the discovery and solution of important problems.
Therefore, internal audit should start from the detection of errors and fraud prevention, but it must not stay in the errors and disadvantages found, but must also deeply analyze the reasons for the errors, is it a temporary negligence, or the internal control mechanism is ineffective? If it is the latter, is the internal control mechanism design missing, or is there a problem of incompatible positions not being separated? By revealing the underlying causes, make sound recommendations for solving the problem.
From the advancement of error detection and fraud prevention to the disclosure of institutional defects, it also means that even if the problem of favoritism and fraud is not found from the appearance, it is necessary to analyze the soundness and rationality of the internal control mechanism from the perspective of risk prevention, and in the process of audit work, fully communicate with the audited object on the risks and consequences of the mechanism defects, so as to enhance the initiative and consciousness of the internal control mechanism.
(2) Internal audit should progress from discovering scattered risks to identifying systemic risks
The development of internal audit work has indeed helped enterprises to identify and avoid many risks. However, it is undeniable that due to the failure to truly establish a risk-oriented audit management system, and the failure to guide the whole process of internal audit work with the basic principles of risk identification, assessment, measurement, response, reporting and other risk management, most of the internal audit findings are scattered risks, subject to the experience and skills of auditors, with certain contingencies, which can only play a limited role in preventing risks for enterprises.
If internal auditing wants to play a greater value in the enterprise, it must advance from the identification of scattered risks to the identification of systemic risks, use scientific and process-oriented thinking to systematically diagnose the production and operation of enterprises, take risk assessment and judgment as the importance standard of audit activities such as audit plans, audit plans, audit sampling, problem identification and confirmation, and audit reports, and position the goal to reveal and prevent systemic, overall and key risks.
(III) Internal audit should be advanced from compliance review to management audit to find room for improvement in efficiency and efficiency
In January 2011, the International Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) published a new version of the International Framework for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, which is defined as an independent, objective validation and advisory activity aimed at adding value and improving the operations of the organization. The Internal Audit Standards revised and issued by The Mainland in August 2013 and the Provisions on Internal Audit Work issued in January 2018 have similar interpretations, that internal audit should promote the improvement of governance, value and achievement of objectives of the organization.
The above description actually shows an important change in the internal audit function, that is, to extend from compliance review to service, improve the level of auditing, give full play to the value-added role of internal audit, and identify the content of formal compliance but with room for improvement in efficiency and effect through data analysis and management evaluation, so as to maximize the efficiency and operation and management benefits of enterprises. This requires internal audit to firmly establish the work concept of "supervision in service, prevention is better than correction", from simple supervision to supervision and evaluation, consulting services, more participation in future-oriented planning and decision-making work, timely exploration and development of strategic management audits, to provide consulting services for management decisions, to achieve value appreciation, to ensure that the goals of internal audit are consistent with the management goals of enterprises.
(4) Internal audit should be carried out from revealing problems after the fact to risk early warning prevention and control in advance and correction during the event
Traditional internal audit, mainly based on the facts that have occurred, in the form of post-mortem review to reveal the existing problems, although it is not too late to make up for the dead, but after all, economic losses or other adverse consequences are fait accompli. Therefore, if the problem can only be revealed after the fact, it is difficult for internal audit to get the attention of the audited unit. In order to play a greater role, internal audit should move the front line of work forward, one is to summarize the problems found in the past after the fact, plan and optimize the plan in advance to avoid similar problems in the future, and make preventive suggestions to the relevant departments; the second is to summarize the defect characteristics that have emerged in the event, and in the future stage, it will begin to identify whether these defect features will reappear, and carry out process intervention when the signs first appear.
Fourth, the path to the realization of the internal audit function of state-owned enterprises in the new era
The focus of the above-mentioned transformation and upgrading has long been agreed in the industry in theory and direction, but why in practice it has always stayed at a relatively early level, the key crux of the problem is that the internal audit of state-owned enterprises in the leadership system and working mechanism is not straightened out, this problem is not solved, the goal of achieving transformation and upgrading can only be a fantasy, can not meet the new era environment of the state to "state-owned enterprises should continue to become stronger and better and bigger, to provide a stronger material foundation for the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in the new era." Provide a more powerful guarantee for the party's ability to govern" positioning requirements.
This result believes that under the basic principle of "unified leadership and hierarchical management" of auditing work, it is necessary to rationalize the functional positioning of government departments, enterprise groups and grass-roots enterprises in internal audit, and make precise efforts under the framework of reasonable and clear division of labor, so that internal audit can truly become the endogenous demand of enterprises, and further exert the power of professional associations to promote the construction of a good ecology of internal auditing.
(1) The functional departments of the government are responsible for the top-level design of the audit supervision system, implement the supervision of state-owned assets through external audits, and carry out "compliance audits" for the internal audit work of enterprises.
As the highest leader in the field of internal audit, the functional departments of the government need to carry out top-level design of internal audit requirements, norms, efficacy, etc., clarify and implement the audit supervision responsibilities at the same level, and guide the internal audit functions and tasks of the subordinates.
1. Formulate and continuously improve the system of laws and regulations related to internal audit
On the basis of learning from the advanced practical experience at home and abroad, we should formulate and improve China's internal audit laws and regulations system that conforms to the characteristics of the mainland's national conditions and is conducive to giving play to the advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics; in addition to the basic practice norms for internal auditing, it is also necessary to continuously enrich the relevant systems and norms for internal audit professional access, qualification certification, professional title evaluation, vocational training, and continuing education, clarify the access standards for the theoretical and practical skills of internal auditors, and do a good job of "entrance" to optimize and rationalize the structure of internal auditors and do a good job in the "process." "Close, promote the knowledge and skills of internal auditors to be in line with the relevant laws and regulations and policies of the state, so as to ensure the professional quality of internal auditors."
2. Improve the division of labor system for internal audit functions
Formulate a functional division of labor system for government auditing, enterprise group auditing, and grass-roots enterprise auditing, clarify the connotation of unified leadership and hierarchical management, and clarify their main tasks, so as to ensure the comprehensiveness of state-owned asset audit supervision and supervision, and to ensure the relative independence of internal audit work at all levels.
3. Perform the duties of investors and give full play to the internal audit supervision function
As a representative of the investors of state-owned assets, through direct audit or entrusted external audit, the work deployment and effectiveness of the central enterprises in implementing the national economic policy, the key areas of national supervision and governance, and the areas of public concern are inspected, and the soundness of the internal control mechanism is assessed, and whether the performance of important posts is in place and sufficient. What should be particularly emphasized here is that the supervision of central enterprises should mainly play the independent role of external audit.
4. Strengthen the "compliance audit" of the internal audit of central enterprises
Review whether the audit project of the enterprise is complete and whether it should be reviewed; whether the audit procedures are standardized, whether the steps are complete, and whether the traces of each step are clear; whether the audit methods are scientific, whether the sampling methods are appropriate, and whether the sampling ratio is up to standard, so as to supervise the performance of duties and duties in the internal audit of state-owned enterprises. For problems discovered by external audit but not discovered by internal audit, we should evaluate whether internal audit has performed its duties and due diligence in a realistic manner, and avoid blame for internal audit for perfection.
(2) The enterprise group shall conduct compliance inspections on the internal audit of grass-roots enterprises, and carry out direct audits in areas where the internal audit of grass-roots enterprises is difficult to cover and constrain
For state-owned enterprises, in terms of protecting the interests of investors and safeguarding the preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets, the enterprise group is an extension of the state-owned assets regulatory authority, and it is necessary to give play to the downward supervision and guidance role of the group:
1. Guide the rationality of the audit plan of grass-roots enterprises
The leadership of the enterprise group over the audit work of the grass-roots enterprises is first embodied as administrative leadership, focusing on supervising the full performance of the duties by reviewing the rationality of the internal audit plan of the grass-roots enterprises: (1) whether the basic audit items such as internal control audit and economic responsibility audit are completely covered, and whether they have achieved due diligence. Whether the asset and income coverage ratio of the internal control audit is up to standard, and whether the objects of the economic responsibility audit cover all the objects that should be reviewed. (2) Whether the plan of the special audit is reasonable and whether it covers the key areas and key matters required by the enterprise group. (3) Supervise the integrity of the implementation of the plan at the end of the period and promote the implementation of the audit plan.
2. Check the compliance of the internal audit procedures of grass-roots enterprises
Compliance with internal audit procedures is the basic means to ensure the quality of internal audit work, and only internal audit process compliance can objectively view the inherent risks that cannot be avoided in evaluating the sampling to be audited. Therefore, the second dimension of the enterprise group's leadership over the audit work of grass-roots enterprises is professional leadership, that is, to review whether the internal audit procedures of grass-roots enterprises are compliant against audit norms.
3. Carry out direct audits of areas that are difficult to cover by the internal audit of grass-roots enterprises
One of the problems that cannot be avoided in the internal audit of enterprises is that as an "insider", it is difficult to supervise the leadership level of the enterprise due to the influence of the internal administrative system. Therefore, enterprise groups should directly carry out audits for this weak area, so as to achieve full coverage of the supervision of the main risks of enterprise operation.
(III) The internal audit of grass-roots enterprises should accept the evaluation of the work effect of the company's administrative system, continuously improve the ability and level of employment, and improve the contribution to the value of the enterprise
1. Rationalize the reporting system of internal audit
Although the internal audit department exists as an administrative department of the company, based on the particularity of the nature of its work, it is first necessary to ensure the relative independence of its work from the leadership division of labor. Since the board members of state-owned enterprises are still executives from within the enterprise, the seats of external independent directors are not only limited, but also the frequency of contact with the daily production and operation of the enterprise is also limited, so the internal audit reports to the board of directors and is responsible, which seems to have an independent position, but in fact it is difficult to play a role in practice, and it is easy to become a formality. A more effective way is to make it clear that the highest person in charge of the enterprise directly manages the internal audit department, on the one hand, the position level of the highest person in charge guarantees the special status of the internal audit department, and the supervision of the following levels has a legal basis; on the other hand, the positioning of the highest person in charge of the work of the overall situation of the company also determines the independence and neutrality of the internal audit department, and can not be attached to and subject to other administrative leaders and their areas of responsibility in the work, so as to ensure that the audit has sufficient right to speak.
2. Innovate the concept of internal audit work
Combined with the above-mentioned focus of audit transformation and upgrading, we will innovate the concept of audit work and enhance the value of audit work. The first is to establish the concept of audit risk. Strengthen risk awareness, use new technologies, establish new mechanisms, improve the ability to prevent, resolve and control various risks, early detection or prediction of existing problems in the organization, and resolve risks invisibly. The second is to establish the concept of attaching equal importance to audit supervision and service. In terms of audit strategy, based on the needs of enterprise management and development, it is necessary to have the courage to check and correct errors, but also to be good at advising and optimizing management, adopting an attitude of active cooperation with the audited object, fully soliciting the opinions of the audited object, discussing the problems found in the audit with the parties in a timely manner, jointly exploring the feasibility measures for improvement, and providing suggestions for the company to prevent risks. The third is to establish the concept of value-added audit value. We should not only pay attention to the compliance and legality of enterprise operation and management activities, but also pay attention to the efficiency and effectiveness of operation and management activities, effectively handle and grasp the relationship between the two, and strive to maximize the audit benefits. The fourth is to actively promote the construction of audit culture, guide the audited units to correctly view the starting point of internal audit work, establish a normalized mentality of supervision, and take internal audit as an important opportunity to improve work, so as to enhance the consciousness of accepting supervision and build a good departmental ecological environment for enterprises.
3. Establish an audit standardization management system and unify audit work standards
In order to improve the level of consistency of audit results, efforts are made to build an audit standardization system. The first is the standardization of audit work responsibilities. Standardize audit responsibilities and clarify the interface of internal audit work. Optimize and adjust the management responsibilities and positioning of internal audit and social intermediary institutions, and clarify the business interface of each audit work. The second is the standardization of audit business processes. Improve the standard processes of auditing business such as internal control auditing, economic responsibility auditing, and engineering investment auditing, clarify the management chain of auditing work, standardize the working procedures and work standards of the whole process of various types of auditing business, and promote lean management of auditing work. The third is the standardization of the quality of audit projects. Strengthen quality awareness and risk awareness, clarify the work responsibilities of audit team members, make full use of real-time monitoring of audit information systems, strengthen the dynamic management of on-site audits, strictly control audit process nodes, and ensure that the audit process is controllable and controllable.
4. Strengthen their own capacity building and accept the company's evaluation of the effectiveness of internal audit work
The internal audit department and practitioners of the enterprise must spend great efforts to improve the level and effect of the work, and carry out their own capacity building through systematic learning, autonomous learning, exchange learning, practical learning, etc. As Tan Lili, a national labor model and former general manager of the audit department of Wuhan Iron and Steel, said, internal auditing "has a place to be successful", only if there is a good job, whether it is to discover and expose the problem of damaging public fertilizer and private interests, plug loopholes in the mechanism, or reduce the cost of the project, bringing real value to the enterprise, in order to achieve "in place", get the recognition of the enterprise leadership, and get the respect of the audited unit. In addition to improving auditing skills and levels, it is also necessary to firmly grasp the principle of treating things and treating people, and unless serious crimes of malfeasance are found, communication improvement rather than handling punishment should be taken as the main goal of internal audit work.
As mentioned earlier, the competent government departments and parent companies only carry out "compliance audits" for the internal audit of the enterprise, and the real work effect should also be evaluated by the beneficiaries of the internal audit ---- the audited enterprises, so as to promote the internal audit department to formulate audit plans around the needs of the enterprise itself, and deploy audit programs to better achieve the service objectives of the enterprise. Moreover, the evaluation of internal audit by enterprises should not stay at the level of the number of problems checked, but should pay more attention to the non-quantitative results of internal audit for risk prevention and defect detection.
5. Take multiple measures at the same time to promote the effective use of audit results and accountability mechanisms
The performance of audit efficiency and the upgrading of audit work are inseparable from the appropriate application of audit results. The first is to organically combine the investigation and handling of problems with effective rectification, risk prompting and assessment and accountability, and analyzing the causes with improving management (or improving the system). The second is to implement the "number one responsibility system" rectification, with the person in charge of the unit as the assessment object, for the audit rectification, audit result transformation, audit results and rectification and evaluation, etc., and this is also used as a reference item for the realization and assessment of the leader's performance, which is conducive to fundamentally ensuring that the various rectification measures of the audited unit are in place. The third is to establish and improve the rectification and reform work account mechanism, clarify the rectification standards and time limit requirements, track the rectification situation at any time, achieve one rectification and one write-off, and implement the rectification and implementation of the follow-up audit within a period of time after the audit. The fourth is to establish a linkage mechanism with the organization and personnel department, and timely notify the relevant departments of the problems found in the internal audit and the lack of cadres' attitude and ability, so as to give full play to the maximum effectiveness of the internal audit results.
6. Use big data to innovate internal audit technology methods
With the advancement of scientific and technological means, the internal audit work of enterprises should also establish scientific and technological awareness and big data auditing concepts, increase the use of off-site analysis technology, break the relatively fixed restrictions on time, place and personnel of on-site audit, and realize real-time, continuous and whole-process monitoring of audited units. At the same time, based on full analysis, the internal audit service is embedded in the business process and scenario application in real time, so as to realize the accurate discovery and accurate disclosure of systematic, trendy, emerging and important issues and risks, effectively improve the risk identification ability, ensure that the audit coverage is wide, supervise without dead ends, and improve audit efficiency.
(IV) The main mission of the industry association is to promote the improvement of auditing theory, improve the level of internal auditing through continuing education, and promote the practical application of auditing theory
Industry associations should play a bridging role between enterprises and universities, and between enterprises and enterprises, and exert professional influence from the two dimensions of theory and practice. Through the organization of exchanges between enterprises, to promote the expansion and extension of audit practice from scope to method; based on the link to enterprise practice, carry out research with universities to promote the improvement of audit-related theories, so as to better guide the practice of internal audit of enterprises; based on the follow-up links to relevant research of universities and foreign advanced practices, organize the establishment of a vocational education system for internal audit of enterprises, realize the continuous education of internal audit practitioners, and promote the application of audit research results in practice.
In summary, the strengthening of the functional positioning of state-owned enterprises puts forward higher requirements for internal audit, in the face of the current general problems and constraints in the internal audit work of state-owned enterprises, it is necessary to achieve fundamental innovation from the system and mechanism, straighten out the relationship between the government, associations and enterprises, and loosen the internal audit constraints for internal audit, while the internal audit department of the enterprise should also focus on the core positioning of creating value for the enterprise, and systematically exert efforts on the concept, objectives and methods of auditing, as well as the construction of the audit talent team. In this way, it will play a useful and effective internal supervision role in realizing the preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets.
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This achievement is an outstanding achievement in the reform and development of Chinese enterprises 2021 (the fifth session)
Achievement Creators: Chen Xue'an, Yu Yuehua, Chen Haoya, Chen Zhaoxin (China National Building Materials Co., Ltd.)