Integrative action research: Reducing the processing time for issuing audit clearance

• Main Author: Plofino, Alessandra Jill G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Process control; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6200; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/13264/viewcontent/Plofino_Alessandra_Jill_11789557_1Edited.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This insider action research (IAR) focused on reducing the internal processing time for issuing audit clearance to employees in our government agency. It normally takes us an average of 15 days to issue an audit clearance, while the government compliance standard is 3 days. Being a part of the Internal Audit Group, I collaborated with persons directly involved in the audit clearance process. Guided by the Force Field Analysis, SIPOC, and The Ishikawa Diagram, our team agreed that the delay in the audit clearance process was mainly caused by the non-simultaneous validation of audit inputs being conducted by monitoring teams in each of the 4 Audit Departments. Thus, in Cycle 1, we created an electronic Shared Folder hosted by the Quality Assurance and Support Team assigned to consolidate and validate the audit inputs. The electronic Shared Folder serves as the repository of all requests for audit clearance and contains all attached documents for audit inputs. As an added process control, we established cut-off times to batch the requests for audit clearance to be processed per day. Through these interventions, the audit clearance processing time was significantly reduced from 15 working days to 5 working days. However, this new process still involved a lot of paperwork because the Routing Slip containing the review and approval of each audit Department Head had to be printed and manually signed. Our team had another brainstorming session as we discussed possible actions by using Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Analysis. In Cycle 2, we created an Electronic Routing Slip to eliminate the paperwork and manual routing. The audit clearance process became paperless, but it only had a minimal effect of a one- day reduction in processing time. Overall, after two IAR Cycles, we successfully reduced the audit clearance processing time from an average of 15 days to just 4 working days. Although we did not achieve the ideal 3-day standard, we greatly improved in responding to our employees.