The Research On The Expansion Of Internal Audit Function

Each major change in the course of modern audit inevitably accompanies the expansion of connotation and extension of audit. In the Information Age, driven by multiple factors, such as social, economic, political, legal factors and so on, modern audit is badly in need of adaptive adjustment and continuous improvement to keep up with the development of the external environment changing, which has become an irreversible trend. It includes differentiation of the forms, types, content and related aspects of modern audit, in which expansion of modern audit function is the core of expansion of modern audit. Because traditional internal audit only serves on the management level, the functions of internal audit are accordingly limited to carry out supervision and evaluation. With unceasingly strengthening on corporate governance, the goal of internal audit and corporate governance is gradually become consistent, which is to add value to organization. According to the definition given by The International Institute of Internal Auditors, Internal Audit is a comprehensive audit which comprises factors of Internal Control, Risk Management, and Corporate Governance. It is the first time that value-added function to organization has been written in the definition of Internal Audit, which indicates that the core of Modern Internal Audit has upgraded to value-adding and efficiency-improving. Internal audit function should manage to change from traditional supervised and evaluated functions to value-added function. Therefore, it is significant to make extensive researches on internal audit function, which is an important part of modern enterprise system and corporate governance structure.Normative approach is mainly applied as research method, moreover, data and charts are used as an auxiliary description. The thesis includes four chapters. The first chapter analyses the objectives and significance of the study, and reviews the related views at home and abroad. The second chapter analyzes the internal and external driving force which expands the functions of internal audit, and elaborates the trend of transformation from certification function to an advisory function in internal audit. In addition, the existing contradictions in the function expansion of internal audit are analyzed. The third chapter concretely analyzes the conditions, forms and channels of the implement of value-added function, which mainly includes internal control, risk management, corporate governance, and integration of GRC. Finally, the thesis sums up the status of internal audit function on the basis of survey data, thoroughly analyzes the reasons of these problems which impede the development of China's internal audit function, and puts forward some corresponding improvement measures.