Camelot Consulting Group

* Audit.

Many organizations include an Audit function, but their role is often controversial and confused.

Audit is not the same as quality inspection. In the spirit of total quality management, quality inspection is the responsibility of every producing function. It should be done every day in the normal course of doing business, not occasionally by outsiders.

Rather, Audit performs periodic checks to ensure that people are complying with rules and policies. It judges the work of others on behalf of someone other than the people being judged.

Audit involves problem identification, not problem diagnosis and repair. Auditors should never make suggestions for corrective actions. To do so would be exercising undue influence, a conflict of interests. Imagine if the Internal Revenue Service recommended a particular vendor's general ledger system! Auditors' focus should be strictly on examining results, not recommending solutions.

Auditors check on compliance; they do not replace managers by setting objectives, giving orders, or measuring results.

Audit should never be used to substitute for direction through line management. The order to comply with rules and policies must come through one's chain of command to have legitimacy, as should the directive to cooperate with Auditors. Without such legitimacy, Auditors will have a difficult time doing their jobs, and compliance will be minimal.

Audit is not only a distinct building block of structure. It must be kept entirely separate from the other service-oriented functions. It is impossible for the same people to both serve and police others, and any fulfillment of the Audit function compromises a group's ability to be customer focused and to partner with those it serves. Imagine someone saying, "I'm from the Internal Revenue Service. I'd like to help you with your financial planning!"

While Auditors can be polite and professional, they sell their services to stakeholders other than those whom they audit.