Determinants of internal audit effectiveness in the public sector, case study in selected Ethiopian public sector offices

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate on the determinants of internal audit effectiveness in the selected Ethiopian public sector offices. This investigation is focused on 15 purposely selected public sector offices that are expected to represent all other sectors. The management teams and the internal auditors of the selected public sector office are the source for the required data to the researcher through the questionnaires administered. In addition, the finding of this study is to show the direct relation effects of management perception, management support, organizational independence of internal auditors, adequate and competent internal auditor’s staff and the presence of approved internal audit charter with the internal audit effectiveness on the public sector management. According to the regression output the management support, the existence of adequate and competent IA staff, and the availability of approved IA charter were contributed for the internal audit effectiveness in the public sector significantly and positively. The remaining two variable; the managements perception for the IA value and the organizational independent of internal auditors were positively related with the IAE but their contribution for the IAE were statistically not significance. All of these five independent variables are making 55.10% of the contributions for internal audit effectiveness in the public sector offices. The public sector offices should understand that the contributions of these variables were collectively significant to identify any noncompliance activities in their office and to add values for the IAE in the public sector offices.