Suppose you have been appointed to be a member of a three-person external review team to evaluate the internal auditing department of a medium-sized chain of retail department stores in the Southwest. One of the team's directives is to evaluate whether the department exercises due professional care in its work. In fact, the president of the company, when giving the charge to your team, specified that he wanted to be sure that the "auditing department's procedures would provide management with the assurance that all of the company's transactions are recorded and reported correctly, and that all of the company policies are being followed - no ifs, ands, or buts about it."

He also wants assurance that the auditors will use appropriate procedures that will provide "absolute certainty" of their results.

Required:

a. What do you think of the president's charge?

b. Using the provisions in the Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing regarding due professional care as your guide, how would you modify this charge, if at all?