It is important to make sure that appropriate firewalls and mitigating controls are in place before the product or activity begins. The audit committee should also require the highest possible level of independence for the internal audit process and eliminate any threats to this independence, such as the tendency for some internal auditors to act as management consultants within the organization.
Internal auditors add value by being effective independent assessors of the quality of the internal control framework and processes. Auditors lose their independence when they perform management consulting roles for which they later will have to render an opinion.