A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Award of Degree of Master of Science in Accounting and Finance (MSc-A&F) of Mzumbe University.
The role of public sector internal auditors include providing assurance and consulting services that specific legislation, standards, procedures and regulations are being adhered by the public organization (s) and to evaluate the financial statements to determine whether they fairly present the financial position of the unit being audited. Providing assurance is the core contribution of the internal audit activity to risk management. The internal auditor typically provides assurance on: Risk management processes, including their design and how well they are working, Management of key risks, including the effectiveness of the controls and other activities and reliable and appropriate assessment of risks and reporting of risk and control status The internal audit may also provide consulting services that improve organizational risk management and control processes. The main objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the availability of internal audit unit in the local government authorities in financial management system of the LGAs, find and whether the internal audit has fulfilled the purpose for its establishment and to establish strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats if any. Having evaluated the above situation, the study came up with viable recommendations for improving the auditing system. The statistical summary of responses result indicates that, by making use of detail questionnaire and interviews, there are no sufficient and highly skilled staffs, 80 percent, no effort is made to integrate and coordinate audit evolution activities, 80 percent and to develop and implement appropriate framework to measure internal audit performance, 90 percent.
The study further showed that Ruangwa District council has audit committee; respondents still don‟t believe that the audit committee has the right possession of knowledge, experience and representation of major stakeholders. Technology as a tool for auditing is almost not used, 98 percent, budget for IAU (own source) is also not allocated, 80 percent and it is not common to out-source or co-source for audit services, 100 percent when staff lacks knowledge in the audit area. On the basis of these findings
the researcher made the following recommendations to internal audit unit and management, to Management; various training to internal auditors as per requirements, Implementations of various recommendation found in audit reports and Sufficient funding to IAU. On the other hand to Internal Auditors; managing the internal audit activity, unrestricted access, stakeholders support to IAU and availability of an audit manual to the whole organization.