John Hills of PayPal writes about his internal audit team’s experience with an External Quality Assessment, an exercise that must be conducted every five years.
In today’s world, five years seems to fly by in the blink of an eye. One minute you are going through an External Quality Assessment and the next, one is barreling your way. In 2023, PayPal’s internal audit function embarked on our third EQA conducted by the IIA since PayPal became an independent company after splitting from eBay in 2015. We decided to do this on an accelerated timeframe, with the belief that an EQA would help us mature our program, offer key insights on opportunities to improve, and provide feedback on the sustainability of our program — without waiting the full 15 years to cycle through three EQAs. Although an accelerated timeframe for EQAs is not suitable for all audit departments, our experience was one of learning, evolution, and ultimately refinement to ensure our team stays at the forefront of evolving in harmony with the Standards.