Following on from this post, here are some definitions of an Audit from other sources:
Auditor
Noun
S: (n) hearer, listener, auditor, attender (someone who listens attentively)
S: (n) auditor (a student who attends a course but does not take it for credit)
S: (n) auditor (a qualified accountant who inspects the accounting records and practices of a business or other organization)
Audit (plural audits)
From Latin auditus ‘a hearing’, from audire ‘to hear’.
1. An examination in general.
2. A judicial examination.
3. An independent review and examination of records and activities to assess the adequacy of system controls, to ensure compliance with established policies and operational procedures, and to recommend necessary changes in controls, policies, or procedures
(eg National Assembly audit)
4. (Scientology) Spiritual counseling, which forms the core of Dianetics.
Higher Education Audit
An audit is an independent external evaluation that clarifies whether the quality assurance system meets the objectives, is efficient and fit for its purpose. During an audit, objectives and operating results are not analysed as such. Instead, the audit evaluates the processes used by the higher education institution to control and improve the quality of educational and other activities.
Energy audit
An energy audit is an inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows for energy conservation in a building, process or system to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s).Energy audits initially became popular in response to the energy crisis of 1973 and later years. Interest in energy audits has recently increased as a result of growing understanding of human impact upon global warming and climate change.
Auditors of Reality
The Auditors of Reality are fictional godlike beings in Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld series of fantasy novels. They are one of the major recurring villains in the series, although they lack the necessary imagination to be truly evil.
Since 2002 a team at the Australian National University has been conducting Audits to assess Australia’s strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society.
The Audit recognises that democracy is a complex notion, and so applies a detailed set of questions which has already been field-tested in overseas countries.
The values used by the Democratic Audit of Australia as the basis of assessment are:
- political equality
- popular control of government
- civil liberties and human rights
- the quality of public deliberation
Saint Auditor, Christian martyr of the 4th century.
