Challenges facing internal auditors in Tanzania: a case of local government authorities in Tanzania

Amani Patrick Mbogella (), Alex Reuben Kira and Sara Isaac Ngomuo
Additional contact information
Amani Patrick Mbogella: The University of Dodoma
Alex Reuben Kira: The University of Dodoma
Sara Isaac Ngomuo: The University of Dodoma

SN Business & Economics, 2024, vol. 4, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Many Local Governments in the World, still face challenges regard’s Financial Control and Audit Management and Governance. This paper builds on the assumption that good governance, requires a regular financial and performance reporting that is validated for accuracy by an independent auditor. This also provides stylized facts on internal audit issues in the Local Government Authorities of Tanzania. The following questions guide this paper: what are the necessary preparations for an audit exercise, what strategies do auditors use to carry out their auditing, what information do they need to be able to do their auditing effectively, and whether the standards of internal control are followed by the project staff or not and whether the reporting of the audit findings meet the required standard and thus inform the decision making or not? The study has used five Local Government Authorities (Ilala CC, Dodoma CC, Iringa MC, Singida DC, and Chamwino DC) selected for poor performance on several projects. A Proportional sampling was used to draw a sample of staff from the Local Government Authorities who in turn were deployed to provide an evidence regarding the functioning of Internal Audit. Data were collected by using key interviews, focus group discussions, and desk reviews and finally were analyzed by using a content analysis using NVIVO Software. Findings have shown that, Local Government Authorities still face serious challenges in terms of preparation of audit documents and filing systems before auditing, non-compliance to audit standards, Audit teams staying longer without updating their skills and unclear flow of command which still erodes the internal audit section. Given the fact that Internal Audit is a key parameter of good governance, addressing all audit issues, thus should not be underestimated by the Local authorities.

Keywords: Audit; Local government; Project; Reporting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-024-00692-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:4:y:2024:i:9:d:10.1007_s43546-024-00692-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43546

DOI: 10.1007/s43546-024-00692-9

Access Statistics for this article

SN Business & Economics is currently edited by Gino D'Oca

More articles in SN Business & Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().