Internal Audit of the Budgeting Function and the Propensity for Information Bias

An account is presented of part of an extensive empirical research project concerned with the role of the internal auditing function within enterprises. The main focus of this paper is upon the propensity for bias in the information flows of the budgetary control process. A model of the “traditional” budget process is modified successively to take account firstly of the presence of information bias and secondly of the function of internal auditing as a process of feedback and “counterbias”. Further discussions of the implications for the role of the internal auditor within this context together with some prognostic conclusions are then presented.