Gaining a better understanding of IT risk, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and extensible business reporting language (XBRL) the “to do” list for internal audit executives this year, acrding to the 2009 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey nducted by Protiviti, a global business nsulting and internal audit firm. The survey report also shows ISO 27000 (information security) rounding out the five ncerns list, but indicates that internal auditors are beming more mfortable with the data security and privacy measures mpanies are implementing.

“In today’s volatile business environment, internal auditors play a critical role in guarding against the breakdowns, losses and inefficiencies their mpanies just can’t afford,” said Bob Hirth, executive vice president of Global Internal Audit at Protiviti. “You can see the impact of this enomic cycle reflected in the way internal auditors answered this year’s survey; there’s a real shift in their view of risk and how it’s managed mpared to years past.”

This is Protiviti’s third Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey. The 2009 survey had more than 1,000 participants - chief audit executives, internal audit directors, and managers from publicly traded, private, ernment, cational and nonprofit anizations - who hailed from virtually every major business sector, including financial services, insurance, real estate, energy, utilities, manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, technology, biotechnology, hospitality, retail and telemmunications. The participants answered 100 questions in three categories: general technical knowledge; audit process knowledge; and personal skills and capabilities.

Additional survey findings include:

--Enterprise Risk Management - most pressing for hospitality and life

sciences mpanies - was among the -five "need to improve" areas in

the general technical knowledge category.

--For the first time, four fraud-related activities ranked among the key

areas that needed the most improvement, with healthcare anizations

expressing the most ncern.

--When it mes to personal skills, dealing with nfrontation - an area

added to the 2009 survey - ranked the send highest "need to improve"

area, following the development of board of directors and audit

mmittee relationships.

Despite changes in the business environment, some feedback has remained stable during the survey’s three-year history - most notably in the personal skills and capabilities section. Developing other board mmittee relationships has taken the spot in the category’s “need to improve” section every year of the Protiviti survey, while presenting (public speaking), developing outside ntactsworking, and developing audit mmittee relationships have held relatively nsistent positions among the section’s five rankings.

“An internal auditor’s suess lies with a mmitment to ongoing learning and improvement, along with a deep understanding of the anization’s needs and how those needs can be met through internal audit,” Hirth added. “As a profession, we must ntinue to enhance our skills in the areas assessed in this survey and cate ourselves on new technologies and mpetencies that will be required of us in the months and years to me.”

The survey was designed to chart internal auditors’ evolving business priorities and their skill sets. This year’s survey, which launched at the 67th Annual Institute of Internal Auditors’ International nference, was nducted during the summer of 2008 and captured the opinions of industry-leading professionals through in-person and online surveys. A mplimentary py of Protiviti’s 2009 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey is available at: www.protiviti.m/go/ia3.