Internal audit in the COVID-19 environment: Key aspects and perspectives of remote auditing

Abstract

It was very difficult to predict the global pandemic caused by the new coronavirus COVID-19 disease that spread around the world. There is no doubt that the pandemic will have a serious impact on worldwide economy because besides causing a health crisis, the pandemic threatens to generate an economic and financial crisis. Therefore, the management of service providing entities were faced with a challenge of finding a model to perform their business activities and take care of the employees' health at the same time. This paper discusses possible solutions related to internal audit as a service providing profession. The research findings in the field have led to the conclusion that auditors can take advantage of this business environment to undergo complete digital transformation and make extensive use of remote auditing, since the function of internal audit can be further improved by using new information and communication technologies. The results of the research, which was focused on the opinions of certified internal auditors from the Republic of Serbia, showed that the advantages of remote auditing in internal audit outweighed the disadvantages. During the pandemic, the quality level of performed audits either increased or stayed the same, as well as the level of trust of audit client management, whereas savings in time and a decrease of travel-related costs were substantial.