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The study was investigating the role Internal Audit in Public Sector Budgetary Control with reference to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as a case study. The study revealed that, an internal audit function is an essential part of any public expenditure management system and should ensure that public spending is within budgetary provisions; disbursements comply with specified procedures, provides for the timely reconciliation of accounts and effective systems for managing and accounting for physical and financial assets (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2005). The main objective of this study is to examine the role of Internal Audit in budgetary control in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. The study used case study design, where both primary and secondary data which include face - to - face interviews; structured and unstructured questionnaires administered to forty (40) respondents of the Management and Staff of the Internal Audit Departments and Finance, and budget offices in the MNRT.
The results on current practices reveal that audit work of Internal Audit is not limited to only pre-audit and financial compliance as suggested by World Bank (2006) but has extended to budgetary control audits in the MNRT. Internal Auditors are engaged in providing services aimed at ensuring compliance with budget laws, regulations and policies; effective internal control systems; ethics and fraud detection. These services therefore would play an important role in enhancing the accountability and transparency of the budget cycle and hence in detecting and preventing corruption (Szymanski, 2007). Internal Auditors should therefore plan and perform their audit procedures, evaluate and report on the results, recognizing that non-compliance by the entity with law or regulations may materially affect the financial statements. Therefore, the study concluded that, internal Audit in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has great contribution in enhancing budgetary controls; hence, recommendations provided by this study may help, if implemented, to even improve the situation. |
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