The CAE reports directly to the CFO for administrative purposes. For purposes of
governance, an advisory relationship is established between the IAD and the audit committee of the
board of directors. These relationships, however, whether direct reporting or advisory, are flexible,
depending on the management styles of individual managers. At present, The Schwan Food
Company’s audit committee chairman is very much a “hands on” chairman and views his
relationship with the department to be as direct as the CFO relationship.
The audit charter protects the IAD’s independence by ensuring full access by the CAE to the
audit committee and protecting the CAE from removal without the approval of the audit committee.
In addition, the charter of the The Schwan Food Company’s audit committee establishes that the
IAD is accountable to the board of directors through the audit committee. The Schwan Food
Company’s IAD charter is shown in Exhibit 3.
The Schwan Food Company’s external auditor performed an analysis of the initial staffing
level requirements for the IAD. Based on auditor recommendations, the audit committee and senior
management decided to staff the department with 10 internal auditors supported by an annual budget
allocation of approximately $1.63 million, although the size of the function is expected to increase
as the company grows. Ideally, the CAE wanted people at the senior and manager level with public
accounting experience, as well as internal auditing work in industry. At the entry staff level, the
CAE recognized that it was not possible to find people with that combination of experience. As a
result, the IAD was staffed with a fairly broad-based assortment of expertise in financial,
operational, compliance, and information systems auditing.