Public Governance, Internal Control, Internal Audit, Independence and Objectivity. 

Governance in the public sector comprises a set of leadership, strategy and control mechanisms put in place to evaluate, direct and monitor management, with a view to conducting public policies and providing services of interest to society. Encouraging public agents in adopting good governance practices is one of the objectives of government internal audit units, considered a strategic factor of governance and essential element of endogenous improvement of management. Thus, internal audits must be adequately structured and with normative support for independent and objective action. This work intends to contribute to the improvement of public governance at UFRN, in particular the "Internal Audit" component, with a view to strengthening it, giving this unit a greater degree of independence (technical autonomy) and objectivity in its action. Therefore, a documentary research was conducted in Brazilian and international standards that deal with the professional practice of the internal auditor, judgments of The Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and reports from Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), in addition to the regulatory norms of the internal audits of other IFES, aiming to identify the recommendations regarding the theme and the good practices adopted. At the same time, it is intended to make a diagnosis of the "Internal Audit" component in UFRN, regarding public governance, based on the methodology used by the TCU, identifying the existing gaps and opportunities for improvement to finally propose suggestions to top management, with a view to filling such identified gaps.