Public accountant looks at internal auditing;

              The Public Accountant Looks at Internal Auditing
By RICHARD H. GROSSE Partner, Pittsburgh Office
Presented before the American Management Association Finance Orientation Seminar, New York--September 1957, and before a joint meeting of The Institute of Internal Auditors and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Pittsburgh — October 1957
In my discussion today I should like to relate my experiences and observations in certain broad areas which affect the internal auditor and the public accountant by proposing these questions:
• What rôle does the internal auditor play in the public accountant's
audit?
• Why has there been an increasing significance of internal control?
• In what areas can we coordinate the procedures of internal auditor and
public accountant?
• What can we do to elevate the professional status of the internal
auditor?
WHAT RÔLE DOES THE INTERNAL AUDITOR PLAY IN THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT'S AUDIT?
Although the public accountant is continually expanding his field and specializing more and more in taxation, management advisory services, operations research, etc., he still spends most of his time in making audits which will enable him to render a certificate with respect to financial state­ments
of business enterprises.
So before we have the public accountant look at the internal auditor suppose we have the internal auditor look at the public accountant and his "official" literature on the subject.
One of our well-known textbooks on auditing has this to say about internal auditors:
"In large well-organized concerns having a staff of internal auditors devoting their entire time to the examination of original records and related matters, the tests made by the professional auditor may be considerably curtailed. In such instances the professional auditor should review the scope of the work of the internal auditing staff, including any reports that may be prepared as a result of such work, and take into account in deciding upon the scope of his own
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