With the new Global Internal Audit Standards and the Vision for 2035, the profession is poised for significant progress.
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) is leading from the front, with its Quality Services positioned at the center of this development. The promise is simple: raise the bar on how internal audit is structured, governed, and assessed everywhere.
Quality services are delivered by seasoned professionals, including leaders such as Warren Hersh and other retired CAEs.
These are practitioners who have run functions, faced boardrooms, and know where quality shows up in practice. They provide External Quality Assessments (EQAs) and Gap Assessments that help departments worldwide measure themselves against the standard and chart a realistic path to “great.”
Assessment Led by Practitioners
The value of the program is in who performs the work. The IIA does not send juniors to evaluate your function. Experienced leaders conduct the assessment, bringing practical judgment to the review and ensuring feedback is relevant, fair, and actionable.
For CAEs, this means a dialogue among peers. For boards, it means assurance grounded in experience, not just checklists.
A New Mark of Excellence
The IIA is introducing a Global IIA Quality Certification for internal audit functions that achieve a Fully Achieves rating on their Quality Assessment Review. An independent committee will validate the rating, adding a further layer of credibility.
Certification is valid for five years, supported by a straightforward annual self-certification to confirm continued alignment. The signal to stakeholders is clear: this function meets the bar today and is committed to maintaining it.
Why This Matters Now
Amid rising expectations, the ability to evidence quality – independence, competence, resourcing, and impact, has become strategic. Certification offers an external, portable marker of excellence that strengthens trust with boards, regulators, and the market.
For the function itself, the assessment illuminates strengths and gaps, turning quality from a periodic event into an operating discipline embedded in plans, people, and processes.
Raising the Bar on Audit Quality
Accepting this challenge is an investment in credibility and capability. Whether through an EQA, a gap review, or the pursuit of certification, demonstrating that your department meets the new standard is a powerful statement about the value and professionalism of your work. It is how strong functions become recognized leaders in the next era of internal audit.