WordNet
n. an accounting procedure or system designed to promote efficiency orassure the implementation of a policy or safeguard assets or avoid fraud and error etc.
Wikipedia
Internal control, as defined in accounting and auditing, is a process for assuring achievement of an organization's objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad concept, internal control involves everything that controls risks to an organization.
It is a means by which an organization's resources are directed, monitored, and measured. It plays an important role in detecting and preventing fraud and protecting the organization's resources, both physical (e.g., machinery and property) and intangible (e.g., reputation or intellectual property such as trademarks).
At the organizational level, internal control objectives relate to the reliability of financial reporting, timely feedback on the achievement of operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. At the specific transaction level, internal control refers to the actions taken to achieve a specific objective (e.g., how to ensure the organization's payments to third parties are for valid services rendered.) Internal control procedures reduce process variation, leading to more predictable outcomes. Internal control is a key element of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which required improvements in internal control in United States public corporations. Internal controls within business entities are also referred to as operational controls.
Usage examples of "internal control".
His WMD proved useful to his internal control during the Anfal campaign against the Kurds.
The scant chill of this valley night was enough to incapacitate these creatures who lacked internal control of their body temperatures.
It was with magnetic force that he attached himself to the deck and with internal control that he moved, one after the other, the virtually solid blocks of highly differentiated bone.
McKeon and Rierson had continued their repair activities, bringing more and more of the internal control systems back on line, and Lieutenant Montoya (and thank God shed gotten rid of Suchon!
There was a Band aboard that shuttle-and that Band had used its magnetism to distort the internal control signals of the shuttle, so that the craft moved slightly off the mark.
Suddenly boiling, Dukat glanced at Weyoun and forced some internal control.