Enhancing Effectiveness of the Public Sector Internal Auditors’. Evidence from Government Treasuries in Rift Valley Region, Kenya.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the factors that enhance the effectiveness of internal auditors’ in government treasuries within the Rift Valley region, Kenya. Variables of the study include internal auditors’ independence, remuneration, reputation, training and how these factors impact on the effectiveness of internal auditors’. The need for public finances oversight cannot be wished away as Kenya has experienced widespread misappropriation of these resources. Through Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) the Kenyan government intends to build a strong Public Financial Management (PFM) system which ensures that the government and its departments are able to raise, manage, and spend public resources in an efficient and transparent manner. Despite these measures, management of public resources has not been very effective and in fact, what has been observed is that amounts being misappropriated have reached astronomical levels. Relevant literature was reviewed, theoretical bases expounded, gaps in literature highlighted, data collected and analyzed. The researchers found that positive correlation ranging from medium to strong existed between all the independent and the dependent variables. Using multiple regression analysis, the researchers sought to establish the relationship between remuneration, independence, training and reputation and the effectiveness of auditors’ in the audit of financial statements. The results indicated R was 0.758 implying that there was a positive relationship between all the four independent variables. R2 was 0.575 implying that 57.5% of the dependent variable could be explained by the independent variables and hence recommended that for an effective audit function in government treasuries, adequate resources have to be allocated to remunerate internal auditors’, treasuries should ensure the internal auditors’ are free from management influence, internal auditors’ engaged in treasuries audit have high competency in auditing and the internal auditors’ reputation is critical and every effort should be ma