Recent financial reporting scandals have prompted actions directed at improving corporate governance, especially as it relates to fraud prevention and detection. Internal auditors are now perceived as an important part of the solution to this breakdown in financial reporting and ethical...

Auditing standards require auditors to consider the reliability of the evidence they use in making judgments. Once aspect of that reliability is the objectivity of the information source. More objective sources (e.g., third parties) provide higher quality information than less objective ones...