EFFECT OF AUDITING ON MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC FINANCES IN KENYA: THE CASE OF GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES
Abstract
The study sought to establish the relationship between auditing effectiveness variables and management of public finances in Kenya. The research design for this study was a descriptive research design. The target population of interest was all the Government ministries in Kenya. There were 21 ministries in Kenya which were all considered for the study. The target population for the study was 444 auditing staff from the 21 government ministries in Kenya. This study used a stratified proportionate random sampling method to select the respondents giving a sample size of 96 respondents. Primary data was used for this study. Primary data was obtained by issuing questionnaires to the participants of various ministries. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation. A multivariate regression model was applied to determine the relative importance of each of the four variables with respect to management of the public finances in Kenya. The findings showed that audit independence and audit staff competence had a positive and significant relationship with the management of public finances in the government ministries in Kenya. From the findings, the study concluded that audit committees must have high level of independence and financial competence in order to execute their roles and mandate effectively. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made; the study recommended that audit committees in government ministry should be as independent as possible. The study also recommended that audit committees should consist of members with knowledge in accounting and finance which provides a good basis for audit committee members to examine and analyse financial information.
Key Words: Audit Independence, Staff Competence, Management of Public Finances
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v4i2.422
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