Assessment of Internal audit effectiveness: The case of selected Federal Public organizations of Ethiopia.

Abstract

The main concern of this study is to assess and describe the challenges that internal audit department at public organization and how these challenges could be addressed. This study employed a descriptive research design. The study used purposive sampling in identification of 136 respondents as target population which encompasses from internal auditors and 10 from executives of control department residing in Addis Ababa. Data collected from questionnaires was coded and analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for descriptive statistics. Presentation was by use of tables. Percentages mean mode and standard deviation which enhanced a meaningful description. The study revealed that lack of: management and staff support, shortage of organizational independence, inadequate competency of internal audit staffs and lack of updated audit procedural manuals, lack of BOD attention for internal audit department, feeling of audited as a fault finder, dispute and misunderstanding auditors face from audited, inadequacy of time to operate exhaustively , supervisors` rare in person follow up of resident auditors, insufficient auditors knowledge on contemporary banking systems, lack of qualified staff and scarcity of facilities. To address these findings, the study recommends free access for certification, compilation of updated audit manuals, conducive working environment, awareness creation program to audited, proactive than reactive audit engagement, revision of existing structure and extensive training program to get decisive value adding output out of internal auditing practices.