Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Accounting and Finance of Mzumbe University
The main objective of this study was to assess the effects of computerised accounting system (CAS) on auditing process. Specifically the study aim to examine the contributions of CAS to the effectiveness and efficiency of the auditing process, to examine the factors affecting effectiveness and efficiency of auditing process in CAS, to identify problems organisation faces in CAS and to identify the problems encountered with auditing in CAS. The study was carried out at Mtwara district council (MDC), with sample size of 30 people who were purposely selected. Data were collected through questionnaires, observations and documentary. The collected data was processed using the statistical package (SPSS). Descriptive statistics and Cross tabulation were used to analyses data for the purpose of understanding the main characteristics of the research variables. The findings of this study revealed that the contributions of CAS to the effectiveness and efficiency of the auditing process is moderate. Knowledge of CAS, quality of audit planning, accountability concerns, responsibility awareness, ethical pressure, stakeholder forces, completeness of audit risk judgments and appropriateness of sample selected are the factors affecting effectiveness and efficiency of auditing process in CAS. Further more the findings indicated that, MDC encountered with the following problems in CAS; costs, competent personnel needs, the employee sharing password, the introduction of viruses, the loss of audit trail, lack of segregation of duties, and the potential for observing errors or fraud in CAs is less. And finally the researcher recommended that, the management should put much effort on training staffs to empower their skills and ability to work under computerized environment, and the management should also emphasize on segregation of duties in order to make internal control system more strong.