Operational audit-task assignment and staff scheduling

Based upon an empirical survey, an hierarchical framework for audit-staff scheduling has been developed which distinguishes between a tactical, a tactical-operational and an operational level. In the present paper the authors investigate the operational level. A binary optimization model is formulated, which adequately represents the problem. Afterwards, a randomized heuristic scheme specifically tailored to the problem structure is described which uses priority values to base randomized selection decision upon. Its suitability is demonstrated in an extensive computational study.