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That's overly pessimistic. In many heavily regulated industries, businesses run internal audits that are not officially mandated because they realize that changing things at your own pace for your own reasons is a lot easier and looks better to the public than being forced to change something in 3 months because you failed a required audit.

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I'd say they run internal audits in nearly all heavily (or even moderately) regulated industries. They may not be a mandatory obligation but it certainly seems to be frowned upon if they go missing. But they do seem to perform mostly the same audits as the official ones–only more frequently. With a primary emphasis on being prepared and in compliance for the next audit.

That said, I think you're right. Happy employees always think of new ways to improve things and I'm sure there are plenty of innovative compliance people that are out to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

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