Towards the development of a framework for ethics audits : an internal auditing perspective

Abstract

Ethics performance should efficiently and effectively be managed and assessed within an organisation to ensure continued stakeholder trust, and the attainment of a mutually sustainable advantage. According to the Professional Practice Framework (PPF) issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the internal audit function is a key role-player in assessing and making appropriate recommendations for improving the corporate governance processes within an organisation, which includes evaluating the effectiveness of the organisation’s ethics-related objectives, programmes and activities. The internal audit function should proactively assess ethics within an organisation, but no formal framework for conducting ethics audits is provided. The purpose of this article is to study ethics from an internal auditing perspective and to develop a framework which can be used by internal auditors to conduct ethics audits within an organisation and ultimately measure the ethics performance or ethical health of the organisation.