ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of an audit is to enable an organisation to evaluate its process management systems, determine deficiencies and generate cost-effective and efficient solutions. An audit is performed to check practice against procedure and to thoroughly document any differences. It is used to measure an organisation’s ability to do what it says it is going to do. In corporate environment, organisations tend to combine a number of management systems, such as quality, environment, health and safety, information security and so on. As a result, many organisations now want to harmonize these systems and, where possible, combine the auditing process for each of these. The standard provides top management with the crucial tools that they will need to carry out successful audits and achieve the objectives of their organisation by minimizing disruption to commercial activities.
