The International Standards for Professional Practice of Internal Auditing stipulate that the Chief Audit Executive of the organisation should develop and maintain a quality assurance and improvement program to continuously monitor the internal audit’s effectiveness.

A Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP) enables an evaluation of the internal audit activity's conformance with the definition of Internal Auditing and the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards) and an evaluation of whether internal auditors apply the Code of Ethics.

In addition, the Standards also recommend that an external quality assessment review should be conducted on the internal audit function at least once every five years by a qualified, independent reviewer or review team from outside the organisation.