What's on the minds of internal auditors?

Protiviti has released its annual survey of internal audit capabilities and needs. These sorts of surveys tend to be marketing exercises as much as anything--you've got to do them--but Protiviti's survey also serves as a kind of industry zeitgeist check. So what's happening, as of the middle of 2008, when the survey was conducted? IFRS and XBRL came in at the top of the agenda. Enterprise Risk Management and ISO 27000, the information security standard, which topped the list in the previous survey remain in the top five concerns. 

I'd have to say that IFRS is probably the more pressing concern at a lot of companies. The survey notes that the adoption of IFRS--there is still no date certain--will require a host of activity, from new risk assessment to reconfigured test assessments, retraining, and a new look at entity-level controls and more. It will be a major event. Over the last few years, the top items have been fairly stable. Interestingly, fair value accounting, a top five item last year, dropped off the list in 2009, despite a whole lot of anxiety. Graham-Leach-Bliley, a top five item in 2006, also fell off the list in 2009. So what do you think: What will top the list next year? 

For more:
- here's the results

Related Articles:
A challenging time for internal auditors
Hot career path: Internal auditing
Internal auditors expanding scope of duties
Ten signs your internal audit is in trouble