The Effectiveness of Internal Audit in Promoting Good Governance in the Public Sector in Kenya

Abstract

In attempting to adequately discharge their responsibilities, internal auditors often find themselves in an anomalous position. For instance, they report to senior management within the organization, but they are expected to review the conducts and effectiveness of the management in objective manner. While internal audit can be used in order to assist management in order to instill a strong ethical tone in the entire organization, a poor attitude by the management can make it hard for the internal auditor to uphold ethical behavior. Conflicts in different internal auditing roles in enhancing corporate governance have not gone away with contradicting opinions on how internal audit affect the corporate governance with some citing a positive effect and some saying it has very minimal effect if any. The objective of this study was to establish the effectiveness of internal audit in promoting good governance in the public sector in Kenya with special focus on the government ministries. A descriptive cross-sectional design method was preferred for this study. The target population of this study targeted the CIA of all the 44 government ministries. The study collected both primary on the current state of affairs of government ministries. The main instrument for data collection was questionnaires with both structured and open ended questions. The research is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. This implies that both descriptive statistics and conceptual content analysis was employed. The researcher also used a multivariate regression analysis to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The study found that internal control had the greatest effect on corporate governance within Kenya government ministries followed by risk management while compliance and consulting had the least effect. The study recommends that in order for the government to be effective in its operation and service delivery they should recognize contribution of internal auditing. Additionally, the study recommended that for the ministry to be effectively mitigate risk they should institute internal auditing in its operation. The study also recommended that all ministries should institute internal control in its operation to ensure effective operation. Likewise the study recommended that government ministries to accept internal auditing as a tool for effective internal control so as to realize their objectives set with ease.