We truly have not had a thorough stocktake at the office for the longest time however no 1 at the management level seemed to worry much about it, however, a recent asset audit revealed a rather worrisome trend at the office, however our corporation trades in household equipment so opportunities of damage, theft, & inventory misappropriation is high; When the external audit team arrived, they started with the most sensitive department of the business – the company, however as section of the internal audit team, I was worked with overseeing that the audit of the heating & cooling equipment went on smoothly.
When I presented the audit team with the inventory register, they started by identifying every item little by little. I had to be on standby to provide an explanation about stock swings for most items such as the washable filter, wireless temperature control, hot water boiler, & air purification system! Larger items like the oil oil furnace & propane boiler were only supplied on demand. Everything seemed perfectly documented except for new Heating & Air Conditioning systems that were supplied a few months back. When the air conditioning professional could not explain the stock movement for equipment & parts he uses for air conditioning repair service, Heating & Air Conditioning repair & air duct cleaning, the audit traced gaps all the way to the air conditioning business. The severity of the matter caught the attention of the supervisors who suggested an explanation of how internal controls are implemented to capture movement of all incoming & outgoing equipment. When the final audit eventually revealed that at least parts of the quality a/c went missing with every requisition, both the professional & the storekeeper were dismissed. Internal controls have since been tightened & measures taken have resulted in better inventory management.