An Investigation Into the Role of Kenya National Audit Office ( Kenao) in Ensuring Good Corporate Governance in State Corporations Through Audit

Abstract

The objective of the study was to establish the current status of corporate governance audit of state corporations in Kenya by KENAO.

To satisfy the research objectives the author used a descriptive research design comprising a sample of state corporations in Kenya. The study used secondary data extracted from KENAO’s audit files for 2005/06 financial year. The data were obtained from Audit Programmes, Management Letters and the Auditor’s Reports. Once the pertinent data were extracted the researcher carried out analysis of the same using percentages as statistical tool. The study results were presented in tables.

The result of study established that there was corporate governance audit in the state corporations as the more than 50 percent of the sampled state corporations included had included the audit issues (audit variables) for the case of audit programme. This the study found to be the same with the management letters. Therefore the study overall concluded that there was corporate governance audit of state corporations by KENAO.

The study recommends that organizations in general should institute corporate governance audit especially with regards to auditor’s reports.

The first limitation of the study was that the sample was only limited to 40 state corporations living out a majority of the state corporations. The study was also limited to establishing the status of corporate governance audit of the state corporations and failed to look at the impact of corporate governance audit in the state corporations.