The Internal Audit Co-Source Initiative has come to fruition with member schools Babson, Brandeis, Berklee, Olin, Wellesley and Wheaton selecting the Grant Thornton firm as their collaborative Internal Audit service provider. With seed money from the Mellon Foundation providing stimulus for the inaugural year, each institution has committed to two dedicated audits over an 18 month term with the Grant Thornton engagement team.

Maureen Murphy, AVP of Financial Management & University Controller at Brandeis has been appointed Chairperson of this group. The Grant Thornton team will work with each school in the development of a mutually acceptable audit plan to complement other recognized campus work. Once completed, the results of this project are expected to be integrated or shared with the audit committee at each member school.

At the same time, the schools will be working together wherever possible to share information and provide the Grant Thornton development team data for the development of a Common Higher Education Risk Model in which business cycles like Governance, Payroll, Treasury and IT can be measured and compared in a risk analysis matrix by risk type, risk weight and controls found to be in place.

The design of the Internal Audit Co-Source Initiative will be one of continuous improvement and can / will touch virtually every aspect of a college’s operations in an effort to improve efficiencies and reduce financial risk.