（2005）A Framework for Internal Auditings Entity-wide Opinion on Internal Control.pdfVIP

Volume 27 · No. 2 · March/April 2005 Readings A Framework for Internal Auditings Entity-wide Opinion on Internal Control By Wanda A. Wallace, Ph.D., CIA, CPA, CMA, and G. Thomas White, Ph.D., CPA ISBN: 0-89413-531-7 2004; 67 pages; paperback IIA member: US $25 Nonmember: US $33 Published by The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation Web site: Reviewed by Bruce McCuaig Principal Consultant Paisley Consulting Cokato, Minn. At least annually — and usually far more frequently these days — every chief audit executive (CAE) will sit in front of his or her audit committee to deliver a report on the state of internal control. CAEs have learned to expect the big question. It comes without fail in a variety of forms, but in its simplest version, the audit committee chair asks, Is everything under control? Upon hearing that question, the wise CAE will squirm, cross his or her fingers, and say, with as few qualifications as possible, Yes, knowing too well both the limitation of audits and the unacceptability of any other answer. In the world of accounting, auditors are hired to confirm their affirmation in aggregate financial statements, reflecting millions of individual transactions prepared according to generally accepted accounting principles. Until The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) developed its Internal Control – Integrated Framework in 1992, there was no framework for forming an aggregate opinion — taking into account thousands of individual audit result