Effectiveness of Internal Audit Function of Tertiary Institutions in The Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of internal audit function of tertiary institutions in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study was motivated by the fact that colossal sums of public funds are obtained by tertiary institutions both internally and externally and since primarily, internal auditors are to ensure the safeguard of public funds through ensuring compliance with internal controls and risk management, it was imperative to investigate into how effectively internal auditors were carrying out this statutory mandate. The study deployed the quantitative method of research through the use of questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 70 respondents across the tertiary institutions in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study revealed that there is independence of internal auditors in those tertiary institutions. Similarly, the study also revealed that professional competence is present and revered in the various tertiary institutions. Hypothetically, however, the study revealed that these two factors contribute insignificantly to the effectiveness of internal audit function. Based on the findings, it is recommended that government should amend the law to decouple internal audit functions from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure that their promotions are not internally sanctioned, institutions to allocate sufficient budgets to enable internal auditors perform their mandatory and statutory assignments well and to also invest in the professional growth of internal auditors through sponsorship to acquire professional knowledge and skills.