What is an exit meeting? What are the stages of audit communication? In an exit meeting, you requested the management for comments on action plan. What does this plan contain?

Exit Meeting: The internal auditor should discuss with the management of the entity regarding the findings, observations, recommendations, and text of the discussion draft. At this meeting, the entity's management should comment on the draft and the internal audit team should work to achieve consensus and reach an agreement on the internal audit findings. The internal audit report contains the observations and comments of the internal auditor, presents the audit findings, and discusses recommendations for improvements. To facilitate communication and ensure that the recommendations presented in the final report are practical from the point of view of implementation, the internal auditor should discuss the draft with the entity's management prior to issuing the final report. The different stages of communication and discussion should be as under: Discussion Draft: At the conclusion of fieldwork, the internal auditor should draft the report after thoroughly reviewing the working papers and the discussion draft before it is presented to the entity's management for auditee's comments. This discussion draft should be submitted to the entity management for their review before the exit meeting. Formal Draft: The internal auditor should then prepare a formal draft, taking into account any revision or modification resulting from the exit meeting and other discussions. When the changes have been reviewed by the internal auditor and the entity management, the final report should be issued. Final Report: The internal auditor should submit the final report to the appointing authority or such members of management, as directed. The periodicity of the Report should be as agreed in the scope of the internal audit engagement. The internal auditor should mention in the Report, the dates of discussion draft, exit meeting, Formal Draft and Final Report. The copies of the above Reports have to be preserved confidentially in soft copy form duly encrypted for future reference with appropriate version controls for future reference and for peer review. The management action plan should contain, inter alia: the timeframe for taking appropriate corrective action; the person responsible; and resource requirements, if any, for ensuring such compliance. Further comments from the internal auditor, in response to the auditee feedback, are to be clearly mentioned. This paragraph should also contain the internal auditor's suggestions and recommendations to mitigate risks, strengthen controls and streamline processes with respect to each of the observations and comments made.