The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has approved three new Standards on Internal Audit (SIA). This decision was taken at a recently concluded meeting of the ICAI. The three new SIAs, approved as an important aspect in the internal audit process, are – Communication with Management, Internal Audit Evidence and Consideration of Fraud in an Internal Audit. The Standard on communication with management shapes some of the fundamental issues involved such as matters to be communicated to the management by the internal auditors, forms of communications, timing of communications and adequacy of the communication process. The Standard on Internal Audit Evidence deals with the fundamental postulates of internal audit such as objective of the internal audit evidence, sufficiency and appropriateness of internal audit evidence, procedures for obtaining evidence. The Standard on Consideration of Fraud in an Internal Audit deals with the aspects like what is fraud, common fraud situations, the concept of internal control system, element of internal control system, responsibilities of the internal auditors, to whom the internal auditors will communicate about the presence of fraud, documentation of fraud risk factors when identified. Mr. T. Karthikeyan, Director with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has also been appointed as the new Secretary of ICAI. He assumed responsibilities from December 19, 2008.
