Audit system: Concepts and practices

Abstract

With the introduction of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 registration schemes in the past decade and a half, the application of quality and environmental audits has soared. Namely, the audits are used to verify compliance of quality and environmental management systems with the ISO standards. However, concerns have been raised in recent years about the usefulness of such an application for continuous business improvement, inconsistencies of audit processes and results, and the value of compliance audits in understanding complexities of business systems. In order to address concerns of a like kind, this paper advocates the implementation of the systems approach in auditing. The purpose is twofold. Firstly, it is to illustrate how various interrelationships among audit elements essentially form a unique, underlying, integrated and generic audit system. Secondly, the paper addresses the advantages of using the systems approach in auditing. This includes a more dynamic and adaptive audit, harmonization and integration of discipline-specific audits and corresponding audit guidelines, as well as a sound conceptualization of audit quality, reliability and maintainability.