What is a "Internal Audit" ?

An Internal Audit is a systematic, independet and documnented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the environmental management system audit criteria set by the organization are fulfilled. (ISO 14001:2004 caluse 3.14)

An audit is a fact gathering exercise not a fault finding exercise.

There will be times when deficiencies are found - but that is a fact !

Fact Finding Not Fault Finding

Other terms which relate to auditing are :

An auditor is a person with competence to conduct an audit. One or more auditors conducting an audit is known as an audit team. (ISO 9000:2000)

An auditee is the organisation being audited, where organisation relates to a group of people and facilities. The people who interact with the auditor are therefore referred to as auditees. (ISO 9000:2000)