diff --git a/src/middlewared/middlewared/plugins/audit/backend.py b/src/middlewared/middlewared/plugins/audit/backend.py
index 2a9793650a3f2..4ac0e2e0ac84e 100644
--- a/src/middlewared/middlewared/plugins/audit/backend.py
+++ b/src/middlewared/middlewared/plugins/audit/backend.py
@@ -218,6 +218,8 @@ def query(self, db_name, filters, options):
                 if wrapper is not None:
                     order_by[i] = wrapper(order_by[i])
 
+            qs = qs.order_by(*order_by)
+
         if options['offset']:
             qs = qs.offset(options['offset'])
 
diff --git a/tests/api2/test_audit_basic.py b/tests/api2/test_audit_basic.py
index 5c68b59efc010..8f2237848a989 100644
--- a/tests/api2/test_audit_basic.py
+++ b/tests/api2/test_audit_basic.py
@@ -215,6 +215,22 @@ def test_audit_query(self, initialize_for_smb_tests):
             retries -= 1
         assert ops_count > initial_ops_count, f"retries remaining = {retries}"
 
+    def test_audit_order_by(self):
+        # Perform two queries that can be represented using SQL queryset
+        # and then compare what we get with different ordering to validate
+        # that order_by directive is functional
+        head_ts = call('audit.query', {'services': ['SMB'], 'query-options': {
+            'get': True,
+            'order_by': ['message_timestamp']
+        }})['message_timestamp']
+
+        tail_ts = call('audit.query', {'query-options': {
+            'get': True,
+            'order_by': ['-message_timestamp']
+        }})['message_timestamp']
+
+        assert head_ts != tail_ts
+
     def test_audit_export(self):
         for backend in ['CSV', 'JSON', 'YAML']:
             report_path = call('audit.export', {'export_format': backend}, job=True)