The Office of Audit's Internal Peer Review (IPR) guide for internal quality control provides a means to assess conformance to the Comptroller General's Government Auditing Standards (GAS) and Office of Audit directives. We developed an electronic version of the Internal Peer Review program review guide to:

  • standardize the review process;
  • ensure that each reviewer uses the same criteria for each question, thus eliminating the possibility of citing or using inaccurate criteria;
  • ensure that each internal peer review is complete, accurate, and generally conducted in the same manner for each office; and,
  • reduce the amount of time the reviewers need to complete specific work steps by using pre-formatted working papers.

The review guide, using Microsoft Word 97®, includes various sections corresponding to the general, fieldwork, and reporting standards contained in GAS. Within each section is a series of questions that are to be completed with a "Yes," "No," or "Not Applicable" response, a comment section, and an area to document the working paper reference. GAS or OIG directives are cited at the end of each review question. The citations are hyperlinked to the specific paragraphs within the electronic versions of GAS or OIG directives. If users of the guide have questions on the standards or directives, they can automatically review the criteria on-line by clicking on the criteria, and automatically return to the review question. Reviewers electronically complete the review sheet and forward the results for supervisory review and comment. The review guide, GAS, and OIG directives are located in two compressed files.

Also included are 30 standard Microsoft Word 97® templates, and 2 Excel 97® templates, used to complete most of the worksteps associated with the quality review. The templates, located in the third compressed file, provide the "starting point" to complete each associated workstep.

DISCLAIMER: The VA OIG Internal Peer Review Guide and templates are freeware and may be freely distributed without attribution. This page does not constitute an endorsement of any commercial product. The VA Office of Inspector General does not provide any guaranty or warranty, either explicitly or implicitly, in the download or use of the peer review files. Technical support or assistance on using these files and templates is only available to VA OIG users.

The review guide and questions were designed for use within the VA OIG and may not meet the particular needs of other audit organizations. The VA Office of Audit does not warrant the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of the review guide, or application of it. Users should observe due care in applying the guide in any internal peer review. The review guide and questions are provided for illustration purposes only. The user should adapt the guide for their specific needs.

To download the files, proceed to http://www.va.gov/oig/organization/audit/peer/iprdownload.asp.

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