Perhaps Your Internal Audit Team Does Outsource Its Work....?
This might fall squarely into the category "Who knew"....and that is what makes it rather interesting. Ever since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was introduced bigger companies have been strengthening internal controls and developing their internal audit teams to ensure compliance with the various key provisions. A recent survey of the University of Wisconsin looked at the question if the internal Audit teams ever uses third party (Outsourcing/BPO /KPO) services to get the work done. Interestingly...depending upon the industry and the size of the corporation more than 50 % of the surveyed corporations disclosed that at lest a part of their internal audits are being prepared through the use of Outsourcing providers.
Perhaps Your Auditor Does Use Outsourcing too (full PDF report) ?