South West Audit Partnership, England Synopsis How one internal audit manager ‘raised the bar’ of professional internal auditing in local government by marketing and establishing partnership internal auditing for a group of local government authorities. The aims of this project, how it was established and benefits after two years are discussed. A partnership website page promotes what it does and how it does it, addressing in each a cutting edge approach to all its services.

Contributed by Gerald Cox, CIA MIIA, Head of Internal Audit, South West Audit Partners, England – an organization that provides internal audit services to a growing number of local authorities in the southwest of England. See its website page on www.southsomerset.gov.uk for more details After Reading the Case Study Consider:

1. Are there benefits for partnerships in your sector and, if so, how could you promote these?

2. Do you promote The IIA International Professional Standards compliance for your services to all your customers and stakeholders?

3. Do you promote your ‘protocol’ with your ‘   external auditors to ensure that resources are effectively utilised and duplication of effort is minimised’?

4. Do you promote sharing of best practices during your internal audit engagements?