AUDITORS

Person who is conducting Audit or person appointed by the company to execute the audit is called Auditor. When we introduce ourselves as auditor, people may get first impression as financial auditor. I am not going to talk about financial auditor but the auditors I am going to talk is management system auditor; quality management system, safety management system, environmental management system, etc. Although auditors do their work almost similar in many ways, however, the approach is different, the method of investigation is different, audit reporting is different.

There are three types of auditor, although auditing techniques are almost similar but there are some differences the way audits are executed.

Internal auditor is an auditor who is appointed by the management of the company in order to carry out the internal audit function. Generally employee of the company acts as an internal auditor where as some companies appoint an external expert as an internal auditor. Though internal auditor is appointed by the management or an employee of he company; independence is the prime requisites for the execution of internal audit. Compromise in independence may distort the objective of internal audit.
Internal auditor is responsible towards the management of the company and auditor submits the report to the management.

Second party auditor is generally supplier auditor. Second-party auditing improves the strength of your supply chain. A second-party audit occurs when an organization audits their suppliers, or their own facilities, to their own proprietary requirements. By finding and correcting problems before they affect the customer or end user, the audit process helps the organization to avoid the risk of product recall, service failure, or compliance issues.

Third party auditor is appointed by a certification body after meeting some requirements. Different certification body may require different qualifications depends of the accreditation body they are certified with. Third party auditor responsible towards the certification body they are engaged; direct hire or freelancer.
Generally to act as an auditor of the company, person should have been trained, certified and certificate of practice from a recognised certification and accreditation body.