Remote Quality Management System Audit. Auditors’ and Auditees’ Perspective and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Theoretical background: The pandemic situation affected the functioning of each organization, including the assessment of quality management systems. The implementation of remote audits, including remote internal audits, has become an urgent necessity. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this article is to present the results of research on potential difficulties in conducting remote internal audit, from the perspective of auditors and auditees. The auxiliary goal is to collect and organize definitions of remote audit and describe its essence in the light of scientific literature and other sources of a formal nature. Research methods: A review and critical analysis of the literature, the method of a diagnostic survey, and then the method of synthesis and logical reasoning were used. Main findings: Several bottlenecks related to certain difficulties can be identified. Both auditors and audited persons should not waste time searching for relevant documents or records. There is a need to check in advance to what extent the applied information technology is efficient, effective and available to all interested parties during the audit. It is necessary to clarify the roles and tasks before and during audits, and to make sure in advance that all resources, both tangible and intangible, are available during the audit.