1. CSR and internal audit necessity
In this context, social responsibility is a major concern for management from a reputation risk perspective. Typically, reputation risk is associated with fraudulent reporting, regulatory actions against a company, or misconduct of individual officers (for example, personal tax fraud). But the scope of social responsibility has been expanding continuously to include several aspects that are perceived by the public to be the social impact of business actions. Communities understand the impact of corporate influences in the local dynamics of their marketplace and international human rights organizations help consumers to stay informed of possible corporate transgressions that may or may not be unfounded.
As recently as five years ago, CSR was perceived as an either-or proposition. If a company
attempted to address stakeholder concerns, it might be perceived as impacting the company’s profitability. More recently, studies and actual practice have shown that critical stakeholders -- including customers, employees and socially responsible investor organizations - are actively looking for permission to do business with socially responsible companies. Increasingly, the value of those companies long term is seen as dependent upon their ability to meet these expectations. Furthermore, a significant percentage of many companies’ value today is made up of “good will,” an asset easy to lose and difficult to regain. In consequence, companies that recognize this fact are increasingly seeing the need to take appropriate steps to minimize their negative impacts on stakeholders and thereby protect their valuable reputations and good will.
Social responsibility is concerned with doing “the right thing” and also protecting the reputation of an organization beyond short-term considerations of profit maximization. Ethics and social responsibility are closely related and can be either an asset or a liability. An organization’s management/board members should understand social responsibility as both a public duty and a necessity of long-term organizational value.
In today’s global economy public pressure from expanded coverage by news agencies, close monitoring by NGOs, etc makes any organizational miscue a potential major issue. Adverse news can lead to a number of consequences like loss of investor confidence, devaluation of stock prices, expensive damage mitigation effort, inability to attract talent, boycott by consumers, etc.
To help protect an organization against these risks the internal audit should include a review of social responsibility. Although this became a new area of analysis, that can raise awareness of risks.
The scope of internal auditing within an organization may regard actions such as the efficacy of operations, the reliability of financial reporting, deterring and investigating fraud, safeguarding assets, and compliance with laws and regulations.
Internal auditing frequently involves measuring compliance with the entity's policies and procedures. However, internal auditors are not responsible for the execution of company activities; they advise management and the Board of Directors (or similar oversight body) regarding how to better execute their responsibilities.
Organizations use a variety of approaches to enhance the credibility of their reports. Organizations may have systems of internal controls in place, including internal audit functions, as part of their processes for managing and reporting information. These internal systems are important to the overall integrity and credibility of a report.
“Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.”[http://www.theiia.org/guidance/standards-and-guidance/ippf/definitionof-internal-auditing]