Implementação do serviço de consultoria no âmbito da auditoria interna do Poder Executivo Federal brasileiro: trajetória, diagnósticos e projeções

Abstract

The consulting service was included in the definition of internal auditing as one of its activities, along with the evaluation in 1999 by The Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA), but was only institutionalized in the Internal Control System of the Brazilian Federal Executive Branch (SCI) in 2017 through Normative Instruction No. 3 of the Federal Secretariat for Internal Control (IN SFC No. 3/2017). This study aims to analyze the development of the consultancy service for international government auditing within the SCI scope since the publication of IN SFC No. 3/2017. The methodology used in this qualitative research was the content analysis of the planned reports with information on the internal audit activities of the Government Internal Audit Units (UAIG) of the central body, sectoral bodies, and sectoral units of the SCI, comprised in the period between 2017 and 2021; and on Consultancy Reports prepared by the SFC and the Secretariat of Internal Control of the Ministry of Defense (Ciset MD), between the years 2019 and 2022. The results showed that the advisory service was gradually adhered to over the five years of existence of IN SFC No. 3/2017, and the UAIG did not provide consultancy services. Characteristics specific to development were surveyed, demonstrating the incipient nature of advisory services; the trend in demand for consultancy from the UAIG; the significant amount of consultancy carried out in the form of training through lectures for groups, dissemination of technical guidelines and responses to queries made by management; non-adherence and confusion regarding classifying by consultative types; the strong presence of the evaluation activity in the development of more elaborate consulting services; predominance of lack of monitoring and disclosure of consulting benefits; and the treatment of consultancy in the broadest sense, as any form of support provided by anyone within the framework of the UAIG. Regarding the perception of adding value to the consultancy, its potential to contribute to the improvement of governance processes, risk management, and internal controls was verified, highlighting the transfer of knowledge to the audited unit as capable of adding immeasurable intellectual value. It can be concluded that the consultancy service within the scope of the SCI's internal audit traced its upward trajectory alongside the evaluation activity, but still in an incipient way, lacking greater theoretical precision to the international standards of The IIA to dialogue with the objectives of the audited units and remove the misrepresentation of the advisory services from the internal audit burden of informality and application in lato sensu.