Dissertations / Theses: 'Public auditing'

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Du, Toit Hendrik Jacobus. "Professional internal auditing in the public sector." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/55959.

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Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 1998.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this study the assumption is made that the delivery of a professional internal audit service has a direct bearing on the improvement of effectiveness of services delivered. Internal auditing in the public sector, compared to the private sector, is still at an early stage of development. A change in emphasis brought about by the new Constitution has led to a demand for stronger accountability and transparency. The internal audit profession has an important role to play by assisting management in the effective, efficient and economic reaching of goals and objectives. To fulfil this role successfully it is necessary for the internal auditor to possess specific skills and knowledge to perform audit tasks unique to the public sector. The hypothesis as formulated emphasises the relationship between professional internal auditing and organisational effectiveness. Through the content of this study project it is endeavoured to prove this point. An investigation into the field of internal auditing was undertaken by means of a study of the available literature, including the Standards for Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. Opinions and information were obtained from management and other persons involved with auditing by means of a questionnaire. The opinions and information were. integrated to obtain a comprehensive picture. A study of the literature revealed that internal auditing is supported by four pillars, namely: - Achieving objectives - Safeguarding and using of assets - Economic, effective and efficient execution of functions - Compliance with policy, prescripts and regulations. The literature also describes a definite process followed during an audit. During the audit process risk factors must be taken into account. Technical aspects relating to internal auditing is covered in the literature, but references to examples in the public sector are lacking. This deficiency was identified during the field study by means of a questionnaire. Respondents indicated in questionnaires that effectiveness of management, financial information and compliance with controls must be subjected to internal auditing. Management views the internal audit as a source of information on the activities of every department. The recommendations for professional internal auditing in the public sector are aimed at promoting accountability and transparency in the organisation. To ensure effective internal auditing it is necessary for the internal auditor to take note of the environment in which the organisation's activities play a role. A study of public administration as a management science is therefore important for the internal auditor to obtain insight into a holistic approach regarding the activities of public sector organisations.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie word as uitgangspunt die aanname gemaak dat daar 'n verband bestaan tussen die lewering van 'n professionele diens deur die interne ouditeur en die effektiwiteit van dienste wat aan interne ouditering onderwerp word. Interne ouditering in die openbare sektor in vergelyking met die privaatsektor, is nog in 'n begin stadium van ontwikkeling. 'n Klemverskuiwing wat teweeggebring is deur die nuwe Grondwet het daartoe gelei dat groter rekenpligtigheid en deursigtigheid vereis word. Die interne oudit beroep het 'n belangrike rol te speel deur bestuur by te staan in die effektiewe, doelmatige en ekonomiese bereiking van doelwitte. am hierdie rol suksesvol te vervul is dit nodig dat die interne ouditeur oor bepaalde vaardighede en kennis sal beskik om oudittake uniek aan die openbare sektor professioneel uit te voer. Die hipotese soos geformuleer beklemtoon die verband tussen professionele interne ouditering en organisatoriese effektiwiteit. Met die inhoud van die werkstuk word daar gepoog om die punt te bewys. 'n Ondersoek na die gebied van interne ouditering is onderneem deur 'n studie te maak van beskikbare Iiteratuur, insluitend die Standaarde vir Professionele Praktykvoering van Interne Ouditering. Deur middel van 'n vraelys is menings en inligting van bestuur en persone betrokke by ouditering verkry. Die menings en inligting is saamgevoeg om 'n geheelbeeld te verkry. 'n Studie van die Iiteratuur toon dat interne oudit deur vier pilare ondersteun word naamlik: - Bereiking van doelwitte - Beveiliging en aanwending van bates - Ekonomiese, effektiewe en doelgerigte uitvoering van funksies - Nakoming van beleid, voorskrifte en regulasies. Die Iiteratuur beskryf 'n bepaalde proses wat gevolg word tydens ouditering. Gedurende die ouditproses moet risikofaktore in ag geneem word. Tegniese aspekte verbonde aan interne ouditering word gedek, maar verwysings na voorbeelde uit die openbare sektor ontbreek grootliks in die Iiteratuur, vandaar die noodsaaklikehid vir 'n veld studie wat deur middel van 'n vraelys gedoen is. Respondente het in die vraelyste aangedui dat effektiwiteit van bestuur, finansiele inligting en die nakoming van kontroles aan interne ouditering onderwerp moet word. Bestuur beskou die interne ouditeur as 'n bron van inligting oor die aktiwiteite van elke departement. Die aanbevelings vir professionele interne ouditering in die open bare sektor is daarop gemik om rekenpligtigheid en deursigtigheid van 'n organisasie te bevorder. Om effektiewe interne ouditering te verseker is dit noodsaaklik dat die interne ouditeur ook kennis dra van die omgewing waarin die organisasie se aktiwiteite 'n rol speel. 'n Studie van Publieke Administrasie as 'n bestuurswetenskap sal dus vir die interne ouditeur van belang wees om insig te verkry in 'n holistiese benadering tot aktiwiteite van openbare sektor-organisasies.

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Amara, Salem Mohamed Omar. "Performance auditing in the Libyan public sector." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2011. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3253/.

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Libya is a developing Arab State with a small population and a large geographic area. After the Alfatah revolution in 1969, the Libyan economy changed. Most activities such as agriculture, industry, investment, and other associated services were developed. Accordingly, the number of users of financial information in Libya rose steadily and has continued to grow ever since due to economic growth and flourishing business. This situation has led to an increased need for more reliable information to enable the country's authorities to exercise full accountability concerning the efficient and effective use of the available scarce resources on the part of those entrusted with administering public programmes and activities. In a response to this need, PA was required to be conducted by auditors in 1989. Consequently, PA examinations are carried out by two separate institutions, namely the Institute of Financial Auditing (IFA) and the Institute of Investigation and Public Control (IIPC). Accordingly, a comprehensive description of the nature of PA as practised by the Libyan auditors, assessing the degree to which these practices have been effectively operated and suggesting improvements in these practices, was felt necessary. A mixed-methodological design was utilized in this study. Close-ended questionnaires and semistructured interviews are the data collection techniques. The questionnaires were sent to a sample of performance auditors and public sector managers. The interviews were also conducted with a sample of performance auditors and public sector managers. The findings of this study revealed that the Libyan experience in the field of PA shares, in various instances, a common base with what has been identified in the literature or reported in the practices of other state audit institutions. The research findings, furthermore, showed that PA in the Libyan public sector is "rarely effective" or "ineffective" due to many obstacles that the current system of PA is facing, such as "ambiguity of organizations' objectives", "lack of performance measures", "lack of a sound internal control system", and "shortage of qualified performance auditors and specialized staff from different disciplines to carry out PA investigations". In addition, the findings showed that the PA system in Libya can be improved through the adoption of certain procedures, of which the most important are improving performance auditors' skills and attention being paid to PA by the legislative and administrative officials at higher levels in Libya. Lastly, in the light of these findings recommendations were proposed to overcome the reported deficiencies and to improve PA practices in the Libyan public sector.

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Mehdiyar, Lila. "Auditing troubled employees in the public sector." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1996. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2944.

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Davies, Marlene. "A critique of how developments within the auditing profession were integrated into the higher education audit modules." Thesis, University of South Wales, 2011. https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentthesis/a-critique-of-how-developments-within-the-auditing-profession-were-integrated-into-the-higher-education-audit-modules(6de6dc12-ee0c-4055-9562-e40e335caa37).html.

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This overview gives a summary of the research started 15 years ago in relation to the developments within the audit and governance environment. The developments focus on their impact on public sector audit activity and how these developments have been embedded in higher education (HE) programmes. The research and subsequent outputs have contributed to the introduction of innovative teaching methods that reflect contemporary developments in the audit profession. In introducing these developments the teaching approach for audit orientated modules has moved away from a didactic approach to experiential learning approach. This submission includes material from eight refereed published journal articles, one refereed paper presented at a conference and a chapter from a textbook. In addition, other journal publications and conference papers, which were presented at both national and international conferences, are mentioned as contributions to knowledge. At the time of submission of this work, one paper was under review for publication. While related areas of research were ongoing in respect of audit training within the profession and audit committees within Housing Associations. The period of research activity spans the years 1995 – to 2011. These outputs cover three key areas in terms of contribution to learning. The first area looks at the design and development of a case study as a teaching medium focusing on experiential (hands on) learning as the basis for a module on computer auditing. This was based on research into the practical audit approaches within the public sector. The public sector was the focus of the initial research as it had a requirement for the presence of an internal audit function. This focus on the public sector focus continued into subsequent research. The application of audit techniques to provide a better appreciation of auditing was introduced into module development as a consequence of the research findings. This specifically applied information technology (IT) as a tool for audit which was embedded in a case study, and more recently for forensic accounting purposes. The use of MS Office Excel as a teaching medium was used initially to replicate audit software packages and referred to as ‘Excel as an audit tool’. This was later replaced by commercial audit software using datasets. The second theme considers the impact of policies by government relating to aspects of accountability, value for money and performance measurement, again with an emphasis on the public sector audit function in verifying data used as indicators. The third area examines the working relationship between internal audit and the audit committee, with a focus on the influence of corporate governance codes on internal control requirements and risk management. All three areas identify the changing face of audit as a consequence of external pressures such as IT developments, accountability requirements, pressures on limited resources and government codes of best practice recommendations and guidelines. The integration of these developments in to HE focused initially on undergraduate modules within the BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance programme. The developments were later integrated into post graduate modules as well as acting as an information conduit for local government in Wales. The link between all three themes is that of the changes facing the audit profession and how these have been incorporated into the teaching of audit at HE level. These changes reflect the audit role in terms of the adoption of a proactive approach to responding, not only to the application of technology, but also to both public and government expectations in terms of indirect and direct requirements. This nexus between the themes is further enhanced by the use of audited information conveyed electronically for the purpose of performance verification of targets and the relationship between the efficient use of resources and good governance approaches. The recognition of the research output in the early stages was reinforced in 1998 by the award of Research Fellow from Grant Thornton and involvement with the Welsh Chief Auditors Group (WCAG) which resulted in the research focusing on Welsh local government. Further research has incorporated forensic auditing techniques and the internal audit function in the corporate arena. These were further utilised within the innovative and ground breaking development of the BA (Hons) Forensic Accounting programme. While the corporate governance work has taken the international route of comparing corporate governance codes of best practice and formed an important element within the post graduate programmes of MSc Accounting, MSc Forensic Accounting and MSc Management and Development of International Financial Systems. Funded consultancy work has produced professional body reports on the training of professional auditors in contrast to the academic development of teaching material with journal papers contributing to the knowledge of both the HE community and practitioners. Finally the research and development of lecture material has been utilised for a joint publication of a textbook on auditing entitled Auditing Fundamentals (Davies & Aston 2010). This document discusses the three themes by critiquing how the changing face of auditing influences the design and delivery of auditing modules within accounting programmes, in the context of higher education. The collection and analysis of data, and especially practitioner views, form part of the background to the research method adopted. The output and findings provide the basis of the contribution to knowledge which informs HE practice and the profession. The research output has contributed to enhancing both undergraduate and post graduate teaching material as well as reports to parties outside the higher education environment. The contribution to knowledge has been threefold, where the HE environment of undergraduate and postgraduate students have been exposed to current developments in auditing, along with an opportunity to learn via experiential learning techniques. Members of the profession have been enlightened on the issues affecting their working practices via conferences and training seminars. Finally management have capitalised on the research output and utilised this to make informed decisions. Further research opportunities have arisen as a direct result of research undertaken whilst other opportunities for disseminating knowledge and information have occurred via representations on various bodies and working parties including media interviews.

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Al-Mohaimeed, Ali Mohammad. "Performance auditing in the Saudi public sector : its nature and effectiveness." Thesis, University of Kent, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310204.

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Chong, Kar M. "Resource allocation and efficiency in public sector audits." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2000. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1541.

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In recent years, the push for reform in the Australian public sector audit has placed the Office of the Auditor-General (hereafter OAG) in a more contestable or market- like environment, where the OAG is accountable for an efficient and effective provision of public sector audit. The purpose of this study is to compare the cost efficiency of in-house and contract-out arrangements to deliver financial audits in the public sector. It empirically tests whether there are audit cost and audit fee differences between in-house providers (i.e., the OAG) and contractors (i.e., public accounting firms). The secondary aims of this study are to develop audit cost and fee models for the public sector. The unit of analysis is audit cost/fee at the audit engagement level. The data for this study is collected for a sample of financial statement audit engagements for year-end 1998, at the state level in Western Australia. The data is extracted from publicly available and private sources. The audit cost and fee models are used to test for the cost differences between in- house providers and contractors. Prior audit production and audit fee studies in the private and public sectors provide the basis for the development of the two models. The results indicate that agency size, complexity and risk are positively associated with audit costs and audit fees. In addition, the total advice provided to the agencies by the OAG and agency type are also significantly associated with audit costs and audit fees. Overall, by incorporating these factors into the models, the audit cost model explains 82 percent of the variance in audit costs, while the audit fee model explains 86 percent of the variance in audit fees. More importantly, the main findings suggest that contract-out audits are more costly than in-house audits. However, this finding is conditional on agency type. Further analysis reveals that the type of audit arrangement is significantly associated with audit costs for the statutory authority audits only. There is no significant difference in audit costs between contract-out and in-house arrangement for hospital audits. This analysis shows that the statutory authority audits are driving the significance of the interaction between type of audit arrangement and agency type. Specifically, the costs of contract-out audits are, on average, significantly higher than in-house audits. This result is attributed to the contractor's lack of expertise in auditing statutory authority as there is no equivalent of this agency type in the private sector. As such, the OAG bas the greater advantage of delivering a lower audit cost for statutory authority audits compared to the contractors. However, the non-significant interaction term in the audit fee model suggests that cost differences between in-house and contract-out audits for the statutory authority audits are not reflected in audit fees billed to agencies. Further analyses, using audit hours as the dependent variable, generally corroborate the findings from the audit cost and audit fee models. Sensitivity analyses on the OAG's supervision costs reveal that these costs have a significant effect on the interpretation of the cost efficiency results. By excluding supervision costs from contract-out audits, there are significant changes in the results for the total sample and the two sub-samples (partitioned by agency type). Generally, these changes favour the contract-out audits for all groupings, where contract-out audits are now more cost efficient than in-house audits for hospitals, and not significantly different in costs for statutory authority audits. Additional tests to investigate the determinants of the GAG's supervision costs in contract-out audits reveal that agency size, risk, reliance on internal control, total advice provided by the OAG and packaged audits (a single contract for two or more audits) are significantly associated with the supervision costs of contract-out audits. The main contribution of this study is to add to the growing literature on audit market efficiency (see Dopuch, Gupta, Simunic & Stein, 2000; Knechel & Payne, forthcoming). It provides evidence on the production function of different type of suppliers in the public sector and their relative efficiency in providing audit services. This study contributes to the recent discussions on the changing nature of public sector audit market towards a market-based provision of public sector audits. The evidence from this study allows researchers and policy-makers to compare the two types of audit arrangement to undertake public sector audits. In pan, this study also contributes to the line of inquiry that examines the difference between government auditors and public accounting firms in US municipalities (Copley, 1989; Dwyer & Wilson, 1989; Rubin, 1992). The secondary contribution of this study is to develop and test the audit cost and fee models in the public sector and provide validity on the transferability of audit models from the private and public sectors. This study adds to the literature that examines the public sector audit market. More importantly, it is one of the few non-US studies that examine the public sector audit market and the findings from this study suggest that the public sector audit studies from the US are generalisable to Australia. These findings add to our understanding of the range of market conditions under which it is so far known to hold.

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Chu, Hung Viola. "Public participation in the environmental impact assessment system of Hong Kong /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B19907266.

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Pettersson, Jens, and Johan Andreasson. "Public Company Accounting Oversight Board : A forced change to the auditing profession." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Accounting and Finance, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-439.

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I samband med revisionsskandaler i USA så infördes ett nytt kontroll organ för revisorer, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. De har syftet att kontrollera att revisorer som arbetar med klienter som lyder under Sarbanes-Oxley Act efterföljder de nya reglerna. Den svenska revisorsprofessionen har länge varit självreglerad men på grund av PCAOB möts professionen av en tydligare reglering vilket kan resultera i problem. Därför finns det ett behov att undersöka hur svenska revisorer ser på PCAOB och hur det har påverkat revisorsprofessionen.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka svenska revisorers åsikter om PCAOB och om PCAOB har förändrat den svenska revisorsprofessionen. Uppsatsen har också syftet att förklara orsakerna bakom de svenska revisorernas åsikter och varför den svenska revisorsprofessionen påverkas.

Utifrån uppsatsen syfte valdes en kvalitativ ansats. Data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer och personlig intervju. Urvalet består av 4 stycken anonyma auktoriserade revisorer som alla har erfarenhet av Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

PCAOB har påverkat revisorsprofessionen till att bli mer professionell men samtidigt har formaliseringen ökat för professionen och bidragit till mindre tid för analytiskt arbete vilket i längden kan påverka kvaliteten på revisionen negativt och därmed kan PCAOB utgöra ett hot mot professionen.

Trots att revisorsprofessionen är och har varit starkt kopplad till självreglering så verkar regulativa förändringar från PCAOB som syftar till att stärka revisorernas förtroende vara viktigare än att vidhålla professionens självreglering

As auditing scandals occurred in the US, a new controlling institute for auditors was formed, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It has the purpose to monitor auditors who are working with clients that have to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Swedish auditing profession has for long time been self-regulated, but due to PCAOB the profession faces a stricter regulation which could lead to some problems. Hence, there exists a need to investigate how Swedish auditors look upon PCAOB and how it has effected the auditing profession.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Swedish auditor’s opinions about PCAOB and if PCAOB has affected the Swedish auditing profession. Furthermore, this thesis aims to explain the reasons behind the Swedish auditor’s beliefs and why the Swedish auditing profession is affected.

On the basis of the purpose, a qualitative research method was chosen. Data has been collected through semi-structured telephone interviews and personal interview. The selection consists of four anonymous authorized public accountants who all have experience of Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Due to PCAOB the auditing profession has become more professionalized but at the same time an increase in formalisation has left little time for actual analytical work and the quality of the audit might in the end be lower which constitute a major threat to the auditing profession.

Although, the tradition of the auditing profession is and has been self-regulation it appears that PCAOB is welcomed by auditors since a regulative change that aim to improve auditors’ trust is more important than maintaining a self-regulated profession.

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Malagila, John. "Public sector external auditing in Tanzania : a theory of managing colonising tendencies." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2013. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/364316/.

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This study investigates the public sector external auditing (PSA) phenomenon in Tanzania, and seeks to understand the role of PSA, and the conditions in which it operates. In recent years, Tanzania has shown increased recognition of the contribution PSA makes to accountability, performance and the fight against corruption (CAGT, 2007). While empirical evidence to support this recognition is lacking in Tanzania, the literature review revealed mixed findings. Furthermore, the study responds to calls for more PSA studies in developing countries (Goddard, 2010) in general (Leung, White and Cooper, 2011) and those which adopt critical interpretive approaches (Baker and Bettner, 1997). The study adopts and implements a critical interpretive research strategy in fieldwork undertaken at the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT). Specifically, it employs the grounded theory method (GTM) as an interpretive approach and strategically accommodates critical thinking in questioning and interpreting the case under study (Laughlin, 1995; Gibson, 2007). It also adopts elements of Habermas’ critical theory (HCT) as a lens through which interpretively field gained understanding is extended (Habermas, 1987). This study’s findings indicate that PSA in Tanzania encountered colonising tendencies because of weak working relationship between the NAOT and other accountability agencies, inconsistencies in governance and politics, the culture of corruption and secrecy, dependence on foreign financing and mimicking of foreign models. To coexist within this colonising environment, managing colonising tendencies appeared to be the core strategy for both the government and external auditors. While the government appeared to manage NAOT appearance and exploited the legitimising features of PSA, external auditors manoeuvred within colonising tendencies and attempted to maintain the ‘audit supremacy’ image. External auditors managed their relationship with auditees and the complexities of PSA roles. Managing colonising tendencies resulted into obscured subordination of PSA, contributing to cosmetic accountability and growing public interest in PSA. This research contributes to the understanding of the role and conditions shaping PSA in a developing country. It provides field-based evidence that maintaining an appearance of SAI’s ‘supremacy’ without resolving problems in the underlying power relations leads to superficial contributions from PSA. It also contributes to critical interpretive research in developing countries. Exploiting the pragmatic nature of grounded theory (GT), the research provides a practical demonstration of accommodating critical theory in a GTM. Finally, the colonisation thesis in HCT helped the researcher to develop a societal extension of the emergent theory, which also extended the thesis by highlighting external auditors’ responses to colonisation.

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Terblanche, Judith. "An information technology governance framework for the public sector." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/18007.

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Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Information technology (IT) has an impact on the accomplishments of the entity (Kaselowski, 2008:83). Traditionally, public sector entities struggle to gain any value from the IT environment and regularly overspend on IT projects. In South Africa the Third King Report on Corporate Governance (King III) introduced ‘The governance of IT’ (IODSA, 2009) applicable to both private and public sector entities. Although generic IT frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT exist and are used by private and public entities to govern the IT environment, public sector entities require a specific IT governance framework suited to the unique characteristics and business processes of the public sector entity. Taking into account the unique nature of the public sector entity, the purpose of this study was to assist public sector entities in their IT governance efforts through the development of a framework to be used to govern IT effectively, since sufficient guidance for the public sector does not exist. Leopoldi (2005) specifically pointed out that a top-bottom framework could be limiting for entities operating in a diverse field and having complicated organisational structures, both characteristics integral to the public sector environment. Since a topbottom and a bottom-top approach fulfil different purposes, both are needed for IT governance in the public sector entity. By combining the two approaches and focusing on the unique environment of the public sector entity, a governance framework can be established. This will ensure that insight has been gained into the IT environment and the business processes and that true alignment between the business and the IT environment for the public sector entity has been achieved. This framework developed will assist the public sector entity in governing the IT environment unique to this industry and will equip public sector management with a framework to govern IT more effectively, while under pressure of public scrutiny.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Informasietegnologie (IT) het 'n impak op die prestasies van 'n entiteit (Kaselowski, 2008:83). Openbare sektor entiteite sukkel tradisioneel om enige voordeel uit die IT-omgewing te behaal en oorspandeer gereeld op IT-projekte. Die Derde King Verslag oor Korporatiewe Beheer (King III) het beheerbeginsels vir IT omskryf wat vir beide die private en openbare sektor entiteite in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks toepaslik is (IODSA, 2009). Alhoewel generiese IT raamwerke, soos ITIL en COBIT, deur beide private en openbare sektor entiteite gebruik word om die IT-omgewing te beheer, benodig openbare sektor entiteite 'n toepaslike IT-beheerraamwerk wat die unieke eienskappe en besigheidsprosesse van die openbare sektor entiteit ondersteun. Die fokus van hierdie navorsing was gerig op die identifisering van ’n IT-beheerraamwerk vir die openbare sektor, om openbare sektor entiteite te ondersteun in die beheer van IT. Aangesien die aard van ’n openbare sektor entiteit verskil van dié van ’n private sektor entiteit, moet die beheer wat toegepas word ook verskillend van aard wees en geen toepaslike riglyne vir die openbare sektor is tans beskikbaar nie. Entiteite wat in 'n diverse omgewing bedryf word en aan 'n komplekse organisatoriese struktuur blootgestel is, mag moontlik deur gebruik te maak van 'n top-bodem beheerraamwerk beperk word (Leopoldi, 2005). Beide hierdie eienskappe is integraal tot openbare sektor entiteite. 'n Top-bodem en bodem-top beheerraamwerk vervul verskillende funksies en in die openbare sektor is beide aanslae noodsaaklik vir die beheer van IT. Deur gebruik te maak van ’n gekombineerde aanslag en op die unieke eienskappe verwant aan die openbare sektor entiteite te fokus, kan effektiewe beheerraamwerk ontwikkel word. Dit sal verseker dat insig in die IT-omgewing en die besigheidsprosesse verkry is en dat belyning tussen die besigheid en die IT-omgewing vir die openbare sektor bereik is. Die beheerraamwerk wat ontwikkel is sal die openbare sektor entiteit ondersteun om die IT omgewing, uniek aan die sektor, doeltreffend te beheer. Die openbare sektor is blootgestel aan skrutinering en bestuur sal nou toegerus wees met 'n beheerraamwerk om die IT omgewing meer effektief te bestuur.

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Shetye, Harshad Prakash. "Energy audits of state buildings in Alabama." Birmingham, Ala. : University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2006. http://www.mhsl.uab.edu/dt/2006m/shetye.pdf.

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Shreim, Obeid Saad. "Value for money auditing : its development and application with special reference to the U.K. public sector." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.238158.

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Aldeco, Perez Rocio. "Secure provenance-based auditing of personal data use." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2012. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/340065/.

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In recent years, an increasing number of personalised services that require users to disclose personal information have appeared on the Web (e.g. social networks, governmental sites, on-line selling sites). By disclosing their personal information, users are given access to a wide range of new functionality and benefits. However, there exists a risk that their personal information is misused. To strike a balance between the advantages of personal information disclosure and protection of information, governments have created legal frameworks, such as the Data Protection Act, Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) or Safe Harbor, which place restrictions on how organisations can process personal information. By auditing the way in which organisations used personal data, it is possible to determine whether they process personal information in accordance with the appropriate frameworks. The traditional way of auditing collects evidence in a manual way. This evidence is later analysed to assess the degree of compliance to a predefined legal framework. These manual assessments are long, since large amounts of data need to be analysed, and they are unreliable, since there is no guarantee that all data is correctly analysed. As several cases of data leaks and exposures of private data have proven, traditional audits are also prone to intentional and unintentional errors derived from human intervention. Therefore, this thesis proposes a provenance-based approach to auditing the use of personal information by securely gathering and analysing electronic evidence related to the processing of personal information. This approach makes three contributions to the state of art. The first contribution is the Provenance-based Auditing Architecture that defies a set of communication protocols to make existing systems provenance-aware. These protocols specify which provenance information should be gathered to verify the compliance with the Data Protection Act. Moreover, we derive a set of Auditing Requirements by analysing a Data Protection Act case study and demonstrate that provenance can be used as electronic evidence of past processing. The second contribution is the Compliance Framework, which is a provenance-based auditing framework for automatically auditing the compliance with the Data Protection Act's principles. This framework consist of a provenance graph representation (Processing View), a novel graph-based rule representation expressing processing rules (Usage Rules Definition) and a novel set of algorithms that automatically verify whether information was processed according to the Auditing Requirements by comparing the Processing View against the Usage Rules Definition. The third contribution is the Secure Provenance-based Auditing Architecture that ensures any malicious alteration on provenance during the entire provenance life cycle of recording, storage, querying and analysis can be detected. This architecture, which relies on cryptographic techniques, guarantees the correctness of the audit results

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Ragab, Aiman Ahmed. "A comprehensive viable framework of auditing standards for the Arab Republic of Egypt." Thesis, University of Sunderland, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.326333.

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O'Kane, Stephen, and edu au jillj@deakin edu au mikewood@deakin edu au wildol@deakin edu au kimg@deakin. "THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL AUDITING IN THE VICTORIAN PUBLIC SERVICE (1982-1987)." Deakin University. School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, 1992. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20040906.151857.

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The selection of an inappropriate regime by policy makers can thwart the effective implementation of public policy and lead to implementation failure. Competing values in the implementation process have a significant impact on the results of implementation, and the regime selected for implementation implies the choice of one value over another. Stoker has argued that on the one hand central leadership is valued for consistency, benefits of scale, co-ordination and cost sharing (instrumental model); and on the other, diffuse authority is valued as knowledge is particular and situational, and the task of analysis is to understand the problems, perspectives and interactions of implementation participants at the contact point between public programs and their clients (accommodation model). This study examines the implementation regime chosen by the Victorian Government for the introduction of a modern internal auditing function into the Victorian Public Service, using the Bureau of Internal Audit within its Department of Management and Budget. The selection of the Department of Management and Budget for the introduction of Internal Audit as a managerial accountability mechanism indicates that the instrumental model was held by the Victorian Government to be the most important in implementation. It is argued that use of a top-down central agency leadership approach resulted in implementation failure. Three propositions suggesting the mechanisms by which this result is brought about are examined: that lack of co-ordinated planning at the outset will result in inadequate definition of client needs as part of policy formulation; that intraorganisational conflict during the implementation success, as individual participants are likely to exercise their veto; and the increasing the number of participants contributes to complexity, so that they should only be involved in implementation when their presence is absolutely required. It is argued that the essential task of implementation is to create an environment where participants are likely to co-operate to achieve predetermined public policy goals; and that the introduction of a modern internal auditing approach into the Victorian Public Service required a more participatory implementation regime in order to facilitate policy outcomes and prevent implementation failure. It is also argued that the dominance of economic reform over accountability in Victoria restricted the ability of the Bureau of Internal Audit to implement change to internal audit practices within Victorian Government departments. The selection of an instrumental model of implementation by the Department of Management and Budget is examined in the context of the environment that existed in Victoria between 1982-1987; and while some of the values which Stoker associates with the top-down approach to policy making were observed, an alternative view to the development of internal auditing in the Victorian Public Service can be sustained.

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Lilley, Rebbecca Catherine, and n/a. "The development of an occupational health and safety surveillance tool for New Zealand workers." University of Otago. Dunedin School of Medicine, 2007. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20071011.112802.

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World-wide, working life is undergoing major changes. Established market economies are increasingly characterised by demands for vastly greater market flexibility. New Zealand (NZ) has been no different with rapid changes occurring over the last 2 decades in the organisation of labour, of work and of the work environment. Recent international research suggests that work change significantly impacts upon worker health and safety. Many OECD nations undertake routine cross-sectional surveys to monitor changes in working conditions and environments, assessing the health and safety impact of these changes. Similar monitoring is not undertaken in NZ, with the impact of the work environment on health and injury outcomes poorly understood. This lack of knowledge (monitoring) is considered to be a significant impediment to the progression of health and safety initiatives in NZ. The aim of this thesis was to develop a tool (questionnaire) and methodology suitable for use in the surveillance of working conditions, work environments and health and injury outcomes using workers� surveys. The survey development was undertaken in 3 phases: i) development of tool through critical review; ii) empirical methodological testing and iii) an empirical validation study. Questionnaire development was a stepwise process of content selection. Firstly key dimensional themes were identified via critical review of literature and existing international surveys leading to the establishment of a dimensional framework. Secondly a critical review of questions to measure key dimensions based upon selection criteria occurred. Finally the selected questions and design were pre-tested before piloting. A similar development process was undertaken for the development of a calendar collecting occupational histories. A methodological study was undertaken piloting the questionnaire. Two methods of data collection were evaluated: face-to-face and telephone interviews, and two methods of occupational history collection: calendar and question set. Telephone interviewing was found to be the more efficient and effective data collection method while occupational history collection was found to be less time consuming by question set. Focus groups indicated questions were acceptable and suitable to NZ workers. A validation study was undertaken with a cross-sectional study in distinctly different occupational groups: cleaners and clerical workers. Comparisons were made between the groups with cleaners expected to be identified as employed under more hazardous working conditions and be exposed to more hazards of a physical nature, while clerical workers were expected to be exposed to more psychological hazards of a psychological nature. Results indicated the questionnaire provides data capable of making valid comparisons, identifying work patterns of high risk and provides good predictive validity. The final survey has the potential to generate population data on a wide range of work-related exposure and health variables relevant to contemporary working life. The survey results will contribute to understanding the range of working conditions and work environments NZ workers are currently exposed to and to assessing the health and safety impact of these exposures. Therefore it is recommended this tool initially be used in a national workforce survey to establish baseline surveillance data of working conditions, work environments and health and safety outcomes in NZ.

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Au, Chung-man Johnsman. "The development of value for money auditing in the public sector in Hong Kong : problems and issues /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13552946.

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Au, Chung-man Johnsman, and 歐中民. "The development of value for money auditing in the public sector in Hong Kong: problems and issues." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1993. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31964217.

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Andersson, Mary-Ann, and Nilsson Rebecka. "Financial or performance auditing? : the role of elected auditors in Swedish municipalities." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för Hälsa och Samhälle, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8467.

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The aim of this thesis is to see if the elected auditors in the Swedish municipalities focus more on financial or on performance auditing in the audit report. This is a very important question today in the public sector because of the change in the elected auditor’s duties and responsibility. The public organizations management and accounting today are influenced by the private sector; therefore there must be a change in the elected auditor’s role in the public organization. The investigation was done by going through the audit reports of the municipalities of Sweden. The factors looked at were connected to both financial auditing and performance auditing and public management and accounting. Besides looking for factors, the number of words connected to each factor was counted. Since we only received audit reports from 232 out of 290 municipalities, our result is a little skewed representing the larger municipalities.The results from this study is that there is significantly more information concerning financial auditing rather than performance auditing in the audit report in the municipalities of Sweden. Also the political majority has no effect on the content of the audit report, nor do the political parties affect the amount of information concerning financial or performance auditing. The study also shows that the use of professional auditors in the municipalities can affect the content of the audit reports, both when it comes to financial and performance auditing.

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Brown, Abigail Bugbee. "Private firms working in the public interest is the financial statement audit broken? /." Santa Monica, CA : RAND, 2007. http://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD212/.

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Prasad, Awadhesh. "Environmental performance auditing by supreme audit institutions: progress, practice and prospects." Phd thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/112881.

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Environment and sustainable development challenges are matters of global concern. Trillions of dollars of mostly public money are invested every year in environment programs to address these challenges. The effectiveness of these programs is critical to environmental sustainability. The effectiveness of governments’ programs is examined through evaluations undertaken mostly by the private sector and through performance audits undertaken by independent Auditors General, also known as supreme audit institutions (SAIs). Compared with traditional evaluations, performance audits have a greater capacity to influence the implementation of policies. However, performance auditing in the environment field has received very little academic attention. To fill this knowledge gap, this thesis undertakes three empirical investigations: (1) A longitudinal analysis of two decades (1992-2012) of global environmental performance audit data that also considers some economic data, e.g., gross per-capita national income, to investigate trends; (2) A global survey of SAIs to investigate their current practices and challenges faced in environmental performance auditing; and (3) A comparative study of environmental performance auditing in three countries—Australia, Canada and India—to further understand environmental performance auditing. The results suggest that, globally, environmental performance audits have been growing, in number and possibly complexity. However, the growth has been uneven. About half of SAIs have not produced any environmental performance audits, suggesting capacity gaps. These SAIs are largely concentrated in Africa and Caribbean—two economically poor regions. Both a country’s economic development, and its membership of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) are correlated to environmental performance auditing. SAIs, predominantly, select environmental topics for performance auditing using a risk-based structured approach. Performance audits criteria are generally developed in consultation with auditees. Economic factors influence the choice of audit topics and methods. Generally, the developed country SAIs focus on performance auditing of quality of life environmental issues, such as climate change, whereas, the developing country SAIs concentrate on subsistence environmental matters, such as water supply and sanitation. Compared with developing SAIs, developed SAIs generally use more system-oriented approaches and are more consultative. SAIs identify both the lack of sufficient mandate and sufficient resources as constraints to undertaking more environmental performance audits. Institutional arrangements do affect environmental performance auditing. Significant variations in reporting styles of performance audits are a consequence of deficient quality control and an absence of reporting standards. Key challenges confronting environmental performance auditing relate to: (a) Deficient environmental policy formulation and data & monitoring difficulties (governments responsible); (b) SAIs’ mandate & resources (governments responsible); and (c) Audit relationships and communication matters (SAIs responsible). While environmental performance audits have had positive impacts on the implementation of environmental programs, actions for improvements are necessary to meet the growing challenges of the future, including implementing the new sustainable development goals. These include: • Capacity building in performance auditing especially in poor countries (donor agencies, governments); • Addressing deficiencies in environmental policies and mandate & resources of SAIs (governments); • Working collaboratively with others, e.g., civil society organisations, to develop innovative audit methods; and improving reporting standards & communication (SAIs); and • Strengthening the WGEA (SAIs).

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Findlay, John Anthony. "A conceptual framework for efficiency auditing and an evaluation of public sector practice in Queensland : a case study approach." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1994. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36264/1/36264_Findlay_1994.pdf.

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The obJecuve or this research is to develop a conceptual framework for efficiency auditing and to use this framework to assess practice in the Queensland public sector. The primary research tool utilised is the case study. An expectation of increased accountability has given rise to efficiency auditing in the public sector. Efficiency auditing is now viewed as a complementary measure to financial audit in the pursuit of financial accountability. In addition, efficiency auditing plays an important role in the measurement of performance. Two research questions were formulated to guide the conduct of case studies. The results obtained from these studies suggest that practitioners are conducting efficiency audits using a similar methodology to that used for financial audits and that the proposed conceptual framework is indicative of actual practice. Results also suggest that participants are relying heavily on standards and statements of auditing practice issued by the Australian Accounting Research Foundation. The results of the study imply that future standards and statements issued by the Foundation may alter the approach of practitioners to efficiency audits.

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Barut, Meropy. "Triple bottom line reporting a study of diversity and application by Australian companies /." Australasian Digital Thesis Program, 2007. http://adt.lib.swin.edu.au/public/adt-VSWT20071005.113714/index.html.

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Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2007.
Submitted for the degree Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology - 2007. Typescript. Bibliography: p. 302-340.

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Yamori, Nobuyoshi, and Ayami Kobayashi. "Wealth Effect of Public Fund Injections to Ailing Banks: Do Deferred Tax Assets and Auditing Firms Matter?" 名古屋大学大学院経済学研究科附属国際経済政策研究センター, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/11929.

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Beer, Gabrielle Jamie. "Auditing the Auditors: The Role of Accounting Firms in the 2008 Financial Crisis." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/516.

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Until recently, the role of auditors in the 2008 financial crisis had largely been overlooked by regulators and the general public. Though not responsible for the meltdown, accounting firms have been criticized – and sued – for failing to warn investors about problems at financial institutions before the crisis. Auditors can and should take steps to improve their function as independent overseers in the financial world. But there also is a gap between the expectations of auditors and their true responsibilities. As Lord Justice Lopes at the Court of Appeal in England famously said more than a century ago: The auditor “is a watchdog but not a bloodhound.” This thesis examines the so-called expectations gap and recommends ways to improve the audit quality of financial institutions.

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Abdel-Qader, Waleed. "An evaluation of the International Auditing Standards and their application to the audit of listed corporations in Jordan /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030718.114033/index.html.

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Thesis (PhD) -- University of Western Sydney, 2001.
"This thesis is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Accounting, University of Western Sydney" Includes bibliographical references.

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Kagalkar, Ramesh [Verfasser]. "PRIVACY PRESERVING PUBLIC AUDITING AND DATA INTEGRITY USING TPA FOR SECURE CLOUD STORAGE : SECURE CLOUD STORAGE / Ramesh Kagalkar." Hamburg : Anchor Academic Publishing, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1110039662/34.

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Deliwe, Mawonga Christopher C. "The role of the office of the auditor general of South Africa in enhancing sound public financial management, with special references to the Eastern Cape Province." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2017.

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The 1996 Constitution of South Africa and the Public Audit Act of 2004 provide the legislative framework for the Office of the Auditor General of South Africa (OAGSA). The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors further enriched the interpretation of the framework – for government auditing. Over the years of democratic rule in South Africa, audit performance by State organs was generally poor. Despite the efforts by the OAGSA to improve the performance, very little improvement was notable. Most disturbing was the observation that there was widespread, a prevalence of recurring findings, which indicated that the OAGSA’s recommendations and guidelines were not acted upon, or largely ignored. Firstly, the research study established that the system of capitalist democracy, which comes in different varieties throughout world democracies, indeed brought about a situation where the electorate was effectively removed from its rightful place of being the principal, and had its place taken up by political parties (which are in fact, agents) - which (parties) governed on its (the electorate’s) behalf. This system, taken together with the Principal Agency and the Rational Choice Theories – fully explained the prevalence of maladministration and malfeasance in government in South Africa. Secondly, the study established that the OAGSA has done everything imaginable in its attempts to improve audit performance in government institutions – using the carrot rather than the stick approach. The legislative framework cited above, revealed that the OAGSA has the power to audit and report, while Parliament has the power to enforce corrective action. The lesson of this revelation is: that there is not much that the OAGSA can achieve without a high level of cooperation between itself and Parliament – if audit performance is to be effectively, and appreciably improved in South Africa. A disappointing discovery however was indirectly delivered to the world, through the results of a research study conducted by one Wehner in 2002, on Public Accounts Committees (PACs) (alias Standing Committees on Public Accounts (SCOPAs)) in world democracies. The Wehner study clearly demonstrated that there was nothing contained in these committees’ founding documents or enabling legislation – which in no uncertain terms, directed the committees on what procedures and processes to follow to ensure that their resolutions were acted upon. In other words there was no enforcement mechanism discernible for their resolutions. Thirdly, there were developments in case law in South Africa, which augured well for Constitutional Institutions in general. They are contained in court judgements relating to the mandate of the Office of the Public Protector (OPP). The question at the core of these developments was: whether the decisions or remedial action emanating from the OPP, were binding and enforceable. Two judgements cited as cases in point, one a High Court judgment and another a Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA’s), feature in the research report. The SCA, in summary found that decisions of administrative bodies of State – stand in fact and in law, until such time that a court of law invalidates them. The SCA ruled through citing a High Court judgement passed way back in 2004 - that Constitutional Institutions, although not organs of State per se – were certainly included in this 2004 finding, if one considers the rationale of this initial finding, taken together with the purpose for which Constitutional Institutions were established in South Africa in the first place. In conclusion, although visible root causes of poor audit findings appear overall to be poor consequence management and questionable leadership quality in government, the system of capitalist democracy is ultimately to blame. The system certainly had unintended consequences.

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Gbenga, Augusta. "The perceived needs for audit vis-a-vis audit value in Public Sector Corporations." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Fakulteten för ekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-18377.

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To ascertain the purpose and value of audit in the public-sector corporations, this study was done to explore the needs and perception of audit value likewise to analyse the perception of stakeholders like auditees and the society on the value of the audit conducted by the external auditors in Liberia. A qualitative method was used to collect and analyse the empirical data used in this study. The findings of this study have proven that the need of audit in the public-sector corporations is for accountability and transparency but mainly for legitimacy as government must work along with other stakeholders like public entities to respond to the needs of its citizen. Furthermore, this studying has proven that, indeed audit can add value in the public sectors. In Liberia, the audit conducted by GAC is of great value to all stakeholder as auditors are identifying and reporting on the exact performance of the resource allocation and program implemented in the public corporations.

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Pebane, Mpho Arnold. "An audit of public funded capital investment in tourism projects in the Eastern Cape Province." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2362.

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Thesis (MTech (Tourism))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
This dissertation deals with an audit of community tourism projects that were invested in, in the Eastern Cape as part of government intervention to create job opportunities and contribute to the growth of the Eastern Cape economy through the tourism industry. The focus is on projects that received capital allocations for infrastructural development rather than operational costs. The study sought to achieve the following objectives: • Determine the status quo of publicly funded capital tourism projects developed since 2004. • Determine the modus operandi followed with regard to capital tourism projects. • Determine the reasons for the successes or failures of these projects. • Provide recommendations to address gaps and failures in tourism projects. The key informants to the study were steering committees that were established to implement community tourism projects. The steering committees are represented by government officials (local, provincial and national), consultants and community trusts or any community structure that represents the broader community. The study revealed three types of community projects, namely: • Projects that are operational – although there are projects operating, the number is insignificant and it is unlikely that they would achieve the objectives that they were built for. The overall operational status does not warrant the R500m that was invested by government. • Projects that operated before but closed hence, referred to as ‘white elephants’ – there are a number of projects that were in business but currently closed due to poor management and lack of skills. • Projects that were under planning during the survey – these are projects that have been under planning for a very long time.

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Chu, Hung Viola, and 朱紅. "Public participation in the environmental impact assessment system of Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1998. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31259637.

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Mashalaba, Bongiwe. "An assessment of the relationship between clean audits and service delivery : a study of Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province, for the 2013/2014 financial year." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/4638.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the concept of clean audit reports in relation to service delivery. The study was conducted in the Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province and centred on the audit outcome of the municipality for the 2013/2014 financial year. A qualitative research design was adopted in order to conduct the study and the data was collected through the conducting of semi-structured interviews. The research sample comprised officers who were employed by the Amathole District Municipality and one manager from the office of the Auditor-General. The key findings of the study revealed that, at present, the concept of a clean audit outcome is used by municipal officers to imply that the performance of an organisation is to be assessed mainly on the basis of evidence which is provided by financial indicators, to the exclusion of non-financial benchmarks. This assumption tends to encourage municipal officers to strive towards impressing auditors, rather than serving their communities through the providing of adequate service delivery. In addition, the auditing of municipalities does not assess their performance in relation to service delivery and the ways in which communities at the local level are affected by it. At present it appears to be beyond the remit of auditors to investigate the validity of the protests which erupt in communities in response to poor service delivery or whether the members of communities and other affected stakeholders are satisfied or dissatisfied with the manner in which services are rendered by their municipalities. Consequently, those who are tasked with the making of decisions in municipalities act upon the recommendations which are made in their audit outcomes and formulate plans in relation to service delivery or projects which do not necessarily accord with the needs of the communities which they are intended to serve. Consequently, on the basis of the findings of this study, it is proposed that assessments of the performance of organisations should incorporate non-financial indicators into the auditing process. Adopting this approach would minimise incidences of municipalities receiving clean audit outcomes while the members of the communities which they serve take to the streets to express their anger and frustration as a result of poor service delivery.

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Elahi, Tajammal. "The Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Auditing (PIFRA) : issues in the implementation of ERP in public sector of Pakistan." Thesis, University of Essex, 2015. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/16002/.

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This is a case study on PIFRA (Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Auditing) in the public sector of Pakistan. It investigates the process of implementation of New Accounting Model (NAM) and SAP as a reform imitative to overhaul the century old archaic financial management system. This study has three dimensions: implementation of SAP as an integrated system for budgeting and accounting offices at all levels of Government; introduction of modified cash basis of accounting; and the World Bank as a meaningful force for change. New institutional sociology (NIS) and institutional logic have been employed to analyse the process of change at macro as well as micro level. The concepts of isomorphisms in general and cognitive-cultural in particular, legitimacy, decoupling, and agency have been used to understand and assess the extent of institutionalization. The analysis has been divided into three areas: SAP implementation, organizational change, and training. In SAP implementation, separation of audit and accounts, duality of control and role of the World Bank have been analysed to comprehend the issues and their implications for institutionalization. In organizational change, change management as a component of the project, role of the PricewaterhouseCoopers as an architect of NAM and as a supervisory consultant, technical staffing, core team and resistance have been evaluated through NIS. In training, multiple perspectives of training and its distinct relation with institutionalization have been investigated. It is a qualitative study with interpretive approach. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews, project documents and reports generated by the World Bank and the project management team. The thesis seeks to contribute in terms of its three dimensions and the use of NIS and institutional logic to have a broader picture of the change. Moreover, the identification of training as a driving factor in institutionalization and the role of accountants in post-SAP implementation scenarios also make a contribution to the accounting literature. Contributions towards policy and practice have been made in terms of advice for the World Bank, Government and practitioners when undertaking such projects in future.

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Colley, Lamin, and Timothy Timdy Gaye. "An investigation of Audit Expectation Gap in the Public Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa : the Case of The Gambia." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Fakulteten för ekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-20769.

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The aspect of the audit expectation gap continues to be an issue and detrimental to the auditing profession especially as auditors and the public continues to hold different beliefs about the auditors’ duties and responsibilities, and the messages conveyed by audit reports. This phenomenon has long been investigated in several Western and Asian countries with numerous studies that empirically confirmed the existence of this phenomenon between auditors and non-auditors (audit stakeholders). However, it appears paradoxical that only few studies have been conducted empirically in establishing the existence of this gap, in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the public sector. Meaning, there is a dearth of research regarding an AEG in the public sector. Besides, regarding The Gambia, it appears that no study has ever been conducted to establish the existence of an AEG. Hence, this thesis aims to investigate the existence of AEG in The Gambia public sector from the viewpoints of public auditors and non-auditing professionals to establish the existence and nature of the audit expectations gap and how this phenomenon can be bridged to uphold the credibility of the auditing profession. A purposive sampling was used to select 13 participants with a structured interview data collection approach. The results of the study shows that the non-auditing professionals perceived ‘detection and prevention of fraud and corruption’, and ‘assurance on the effectiveness of internal controls’ to include auditors’ roles and responsibilities, and faithfully expect them to perform these tasks; and also associate absolute assurance to audit opinions, thus resulting in naive or an unreasonable expectations gap.

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Shahmurad, Omar Ibrahim Hassan Ahmed. "Framework to improve government auditing with particular reference to the performance of the State Audit Institution (SAI) in the United Arab Emirates." Thesis, University of Hull, 1995. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3949.

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The increased role of governments in planning and controlling socio-economic development, results in huge government expenditures on programmes and activities. This increases the importance of the government budgeting and accounting system as a tool for planning, managing and controlling this huge increase in government activities. The external auditing and controlling authority ( State Audit Institution ) can strengthen the monitoring and controlling mechanism by performing not only a regularity and compliance audit, but by extending its role to include the examination, evaluation and audit of the economy, efficiency, effectiveness results of government programmes and activities.This study analyses the performance of the State Audit Institution in the U.A.E. in this regard, and identifies deficiencies. Suggestions for improvement, in terms of a more comprehensive, integrated performance approach, are made. As prerequisites to such expansion of the government auditing system, it will be necessary also to reform the government budgeting system. Adoption of the programme performance approach is recommended. Moreover, the need is identified for improvements to the accounting information system, to generate data and information which can respond efficiently and effectively to users' needs for information about programme operations. Internal and external obstacles which impede the effectiveness of the State Audit Institution must be addressed, to facilitate the introduction of an integrated approach to auditing the administrative sector in the United Arab Emirates, thereby safeguarding public resources and enhancing the effectiveness of socio-economic development efforts.

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Cloete, Brynt Lindsay. "Auditing healthcare facilities against the National Core Standards for occupational health and safety and infection prevention and control: compliance, reliability and impact." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22763.

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Auditing in health care has been recommended by many national organisations to improve patient safety and quality of care, despite inconclusive evidence to support its effectiveness. In South Africa, the National Core Standards for health establishments in South Africa (NCS) was published in 2011. The NCS recognises that staff are vital to ensuring that the health system delivers quality health care and therefore require protection against the risk of injury, infection and other occupational hazards, consistent with the South African Occupational Health and Safety act of 1993. The aim of this study was to determine: (a) the compliance of public sector primary healthcare (PHC) facilities with the NCS for occupational health and safety (OHS) and infection prevention and control (IPC), (b) the impact of the audits three years after baseline audits, at follow up self-assessment audits and (c) the reliability of self-assessment audits when compared to external audit results. This dissertation is divided in three parts. Part A is the study protocol which received ethics approval in March 2015. Part B is a structured literature review covering standards for health care, the impact and effectiveness of accreditation/certification/auditing in health care, interrater reliability and factors associated with OHS/IPC compliance. Previous studies have failed to address whether evaluating occupational health and safety or infection prevention and control standards using accreditation/certification in a primary healthcare, low and middle income setting is effective or reliable. Part C is the journal ready manuscript presenting the results of the study in the form of a manuscript for an article for a named peer reviewed journal. This was a cross-sectional study of NCS OHS/IPC audit data, with a longitudinal component, of a sample of public sector PHC facilities in the Western Cape province of South Africa between 2011 and 2015. Baseline PHC facility compliance with OHS/IPC measures was low. There was no significant improvement in compliance after three years. Poor inter-rater reliability indicates a large degree of measurement error. Practical implications of these results are the need to improve reliability of assessments and a process to convert low compliance scores into implemented improvement actions.

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Frölander, Julia, and Lisa Thörn. "Revisionens värde i kommunala bostadsaktiebolag : En undersökande studie." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-148539.

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Introduktion: Revisionen har sedan länge haft en viktig roll i att säkerställa tillförlitligheten hos företags finansiella information men kan utöver detta ses som betydligt mer flerdimensionell i och med sin rådgivande funktion. Att utforska vilka värden de som företräder de redovisningsskyldiga bolagen upplever av revisionen kan vara värdefullt då de både påverkar och påverkas av denna. De kommunala bostadsaktiebolagen skiljer sig åt i både ägarstruktur och revision från privata bolag vilket kan påverka bolagsföreträdarnas upplevda värde av revisionen och är därav relevant att undersöka. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utforska företagsledares uppfattning om revisionens värde i kommunala bostadsaktiebolag. Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och har utgått ifrån en deduktiv ansats. Empirin har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att företagsledarnas upplevda värde av revisionen i huvudsak uppkommer i och med dess kontrollerande och granskade funktion, vilket tyder på att dess traditionella funktion fortfarande är högst aktuell. En möjlig förklaring till detta kan vara bolagens kommunala ägande. Samtidigt visar studien att revisionen i olika utsträckning skapar värde i och med sin rådgivande funktion. Uppfattningen om lekmannarevisionen styrker dock inte en liknande slutsats, och bidrar enligt insamlad empiri inte i någon större utsträckning till värde för bolagen.
Introduction The audit has long had an important role in ensuring the reliability of corporate financial information but can be seen as considerably more multi dimensional with its advisory function. Investigating what values company representatives are experiencing from the audit can be valuable as they both affect and are influenced by its function. The public housing companies differ in both ownership structure and auditing, which may affect the company representatives perceived value from the audit and is therefore relevant to investigate. Purpose The purpose of the study is to explore business executives views on the audit value creation in public housing equity companies. Method The study is of a qualitative nature and is based on a deductive approach. The empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews. Conclusion The results of the study show that the business executives perceived value of the audit is mainly due to its controlling and auditory function, which indicates that its traditional function is still highly relevant. A possible explanation for this may be the municipal ownership of the companies. At the same time, the study shows that the audit to varying degrees is creating value with its advisory function. The perception of the layman auditing does not however reinforce a similar conclusion, and does not contribute to the value to any significant extent according to the study.

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Mat, Daud Zaidi. "The study of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of Malaysia." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/447.

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The audit expectations gap is a prominent issue in the private sector. However, in the public sector, the audit expectations gap is an emerging issue that has received little attention by reseachers. To date, only a limited number of studies on the audit expectations gap in the public sector are available, either in the context of a financial audit or a performance audit. This study focused on the audit expectations gap in the context of the latter. The importance of the performance audit function in the Malaysian public sector, combined with recent developments related to this type of audit in the country (such as increasing expectations among the users and associated problems in practice) were the reasons for conducting the study in this area. Thus, the study aims to identify the existence of the audit expectations gap in the Malaysian public sector. In achieving this objective, it explores the perceptions of auditors and Public Account Committee (PAC) members, auditees and ‘other users’ (consisting of journalists, politicians and academics). The conceptual framework in this study was developed based on Chowdhury’s (1996) and Porter’s (1993) approaches. Utilising the accountability-based framework as suggested by Chowdhury, six audit concepts (auditor independence, auditor competence, audit scope, auditor ethics, audit reporting and auditing standards) were examined. Porter’s model was subsequently utilised to identify the nature and the components of the gap. This study employed two types of research methods: interviews and audit report analysis. Interviews were conducted with 37 participants comprising of auditors, PAC members, auditees and ‘other users’. The second research method involved the examination of four performance audit reports. The findings of this study indicated that the audit expectations gap exists in the Malaysian public sector in the context of performance auditing. The analysis of interviews and audit reports clearly suggest that the audit expectations gap exists over a number of auditing issues. These comprise fraud detection exercises, the influence of management, executive and other parties on auditors, outsourcing the audit to private audit firms, content and format of the audit report and extending the audit mandate to cover the question of merits of policy.

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Kapardis, Maria Krambia. "Enhancing the auditor's fraud detection ability: An interdisciplinary approach." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1230.

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A contemporary issue of concern to both external auditors and financial statement users is fraud-detection by auditors. The ability of auditors to detect material irregularities, including fraud, should be enhanced to enable them to apply "reasonable skill and care" in carrying out the audit. Such proficiency in fraud detection is needed if the profession is to avoid costly litigation, ever-increasing indemnity insurance and erosion of the profession's credibility. The thesis maintains that such enhancement can be achieved if auditors both utilise knowledge about the aetiology of fraud in psychology, sociology and criminology as well as by synthesising a broad range of approaches to fraud detection. The multidisciplinary discussion of the aetiology of fraud enabled the development of a three-component model. The model's three components are: rationalisations (R), opportunity (0) and a crime-prone motivated person (P), hence the acronym ROP. Next, a close examination of relevant auditing guidelines and a number of fraud detection models that have been proposed were used to develop an eclectic fraud detection model (with the ROP model as one of its components). The applicability of the ROP model was determined in a study of 50 major fraud cases investigated and prosecuted by the Major Fraud Group (MFG) of the Victoria police. The study identified a number of inter-relationships between offence, offender and victim characteristics. The findings obtained also confirmed the applicability of the model in the field and yielded a two-level criminal profile of serious fraud offenders which includes a new taxonomy of such offenders. The taxonomy consists of twelve specific typologies. In addition, the MFG study findings cast doubt (I) on Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) assertion in their General Theory of Crime that white-collar offenders are not significantly different from common offenders and (2) on a basic premise of Loebbecke et al.'s (1989) fraud risk-assessment model that all three components of their model need to be present for fraud to occur. The experience of auditors with detecting six different types of material irregularities, including management fraud, employ fraud and error, was investigated in a postal survey of 108 auditors. The findings provide support for the applicability of the eclectic fraud detection model. The survey also found that: it is rare for even experienced auditors to encounter material irregularities; that different types of irregularity (e.g., management fraud) occur more frequently in some industries (manufacturing and construction) than in others; the irregularity is likely to take one form (e.g., window dressing and misappropriation of funds) rather than another; and management review and tests of controls are more likely to alert an auditor to the existence of management fraud. In support of earlier research findings, data analysis revealed that the lack of an effective internal control system and the absence of a code of corporate conduct are statistically significant correlates of an irregularity having a material impact on the financial accounts of a company. In contrast to claims by Loebbecke et al. (1989), the survey findings show that fraud risk-assessment utilising red flags alone is not effective and the presence of only two (and not all three) of their model's components need to be present for management fraud to occur. Both the ROP model and the eclectic fraud detection model were further refined in the light of the findings from the two empirical studies. Without ignoring limitations of the two surveys, the work reported in the present thesis sheds new light on the aetiology of fraud, shows that neither audit experience nor red flags alone is sufficient to improve auditors' fraud detection performance and provide another dimension to fraud risk- assessment. The new knowledge should be added to the auditor's armoury to enhance the audit effectiveness and efficiency and to reduce the fraud detection component of the expectation gap.

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Leal, Márcia Aparecida Pimentel. "A auditoria operacional e sua contribuição para a melhoria da gestão pública: um estudo de caso da auditoria operacional da agência estadual de meio ambiente e recursos hidricos em Pernambuco." Universidade Federal da Bahia, 2006. http://www.adm.ufba.br/sites/default/files/publicacao/arquivo/marcia_aparecida_pimentel_leal.pdf.

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Este estudo objetivou investigar se a auditoria operacional, promovida pelo Tribunal de Contas do Estado de Pernambuco (TCE/PE), tem contribuído para a melhoria da gestão pública e quais os resultados concretos da auditoria operacional realizada na Agência Estadual de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (CPRH). A pesquisa parte da premissa que os Tribunais de Contas do Brasil passaram a ter um novo papel, ampliando a fiscalização das ações governamentais para além dos aspectos legais, identificando a presença, nessas ações, de eficiência, eficácia, economicidade e efetividade e, que este tipo de auditoria pode ser capaz de contribuir para o fortalecimento dos controles internos e aperfeiçoamento dos procedimentos e rotinas dos órgãos auditados, além de proporcionar uma interação com gestores públicos. Para a concretização dos objetivos propostos, este estudo consistiu na realização do estudo de caso da experiência de auditoria operacional do TCE/PE na CPRH, utilizando a pesquisa documental e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. O estudo analisou como os gestores e técnicos das entidades envolvidas percebem a auditoria operacional, se os problemas encontrados pela equipe de auditoria refletiram as deficiências identificadas pela Agência, se as recomendações sugeridas foram implementadas e, tendo sido, verificar benefícios e/ou prejuízos abordados pela Instituição. Embora tenham sido identificadas algumas fragilidades no desenvolvimento dos trabalhos de auditoria operacional realizados pelo TCE/PE, que requerem ainda aperfeiçoamento, a pesquisa apurou resultados positivos para a CPRH após a realização desta auditoria.
Salvador

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Fully, Richard Baros, and Kortu Duke David. "Causes of Audit Delay and their Effects on Public Sector Audit Quality : (a case of the Supreme Audit Institution of Liberia - General Auditing Commission)." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Fakulteten för ekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-20758.

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Audit delay refers to the time from the end of the country or company’s financial year to the date of the audit report. The chances of delay of audit in the public sector are pervasive and as such the expectations of users of these audit reports may differ which could result in the quality and reliability of these audits within this sector to be questioned. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore the external and internal factors that cause audit delay and the aftermath they have on public sector audit quality. As for this study, its original value correlates with the espousal of the institutional theory from the perspective of public sector auditing. Considering the aim of this study, a qualitative research was preferred with the objective of gathering in-depth and enriched empirical data; hence, semi structured interviews were conducted with ten auditors of the top and middle management of the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Liberia – General Auditing Commission. There are varying views regarding the findings of this study as the respondents disclose that the external factors that result to audit delays are caused by either the audited entity or other external parties and not the SAI; however, it is the responsibility of the SAI to work with the entity involved to ensure those factors do not impede the audit process to the extent it cannot be completed; whereas, internal factors which includes inadequate staff training, delay in the review and approval of the draft audit report by top management to the poor performance of auditors as a result of lack of knowledge and etcetera cause audit delays as well and the SAI is solely responsible for ensuring that they are resolved or lessened so as not to affect the timeliness of the reporting process. The study mentions several limitations. One of them is the lack of observation being conducted which would have provided first-hand information on factors that cause the delay of audits in the public sector.

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Procházková, Alena. "The Public-Private Partnership in the infrastructure of the Netherlands and the Czech Republic." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-82041.

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In the Czech Republic, half of the infrastructure network is still missing. Moreover, in the past, Dutch and Czech road infrastructure projects have been delivered over-budget and rarely on schedule. Despite a weak fiscal position in the Czech Republic there is still a need for infrastructure investments. Solution for mentioned issues can become the realization of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The features (for instance the payment mechanism) of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects not only make these investments possible but also solve other problems mentioned. Both the Netherlands (NL) and the Czech Republic (CR) have already established an environment enabling PPP implementation (e.g. established PPP Units, methodologies, dealing with legislation); But despite many PPP projects being carried out on the municipality level, there is not even one PPP project being implemented on the national level in the CR. This is in contrast to the NL, where there is already a developed PPP market, and there is investment in several new national projects every year. How can the CR improve its PPP implementation policy? The answer to this question provides the final recommendations based on the Dutch PPP practice within this Master's thesis. Learning from mistakes of the other countries, in this case it is the Netherlands, may provide for higher effectiveness in the PPP implementation and in the faster adaptation or improvement of the current partnerships. To elaborate the thesis it has been used interviews, questionnaire and several primary and secondary sources, that have been available in czech, dutch and english languages. The main contributors to the development of this thesis have been the experts from the Dutch PPP Unit at Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and the experts from the UNECE, who commented on the results and enabled application of the UN National PPP Readiness Self-Assessment tool to enhance the quality of the thesis. Other contributors are experts from PPP Centre at Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, PPP Association, Czech Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Finance. The tools, recommendations, as well as the PPP maturity Pyramid occurring within the Master's thesis can be applied not only for the further development of the PPP implementation in the Czech Republic, but also in other Eastern European countries. General recommendations arose by comparing practices of both the CR and the NL with respect to the UNECE's criteria. The all recommendations have been shown for clarity in terms of political, practical and procurement level. This comparison has practically enabled to point out the strengths and weaknesses of PPP projects in the CR and NL. Dutch experience has served as a source of considerable information that can make the practical implementation of Czech PPP projects much easier. As a part of the final conclusions of the thesis can be considered a PPP Maturity Pyramid, which schematically describes the current position of both countries due to the successful use of PPP projects. Basically, both countries have already passed "Bad" experience with PPP projects, have produced suitable environment and conditions for their use, but the next step is very important for the successful implementation of PPP projects in the CR. Based on the political support (considered as an essential factor), it is necessary to learn from the past mistakes and start with the practical realization of simple projects (from the beginning) that can be the basis for a standardization and a practical application of PPP projects in the future.

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Lundgren, Louise, and Moa Oldenborg. "The public interest paradox of the Swedish auditing profession. : A quantitative study of potential effects of the Swedish implementation of ISA 700 (revised) and ISA ”." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-122667.

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During the last decade, there has been severe critique directed at the auditing profession regarding its necessity and accuracy. Auditors have been accused of neglecting their duty to the public interest, which is overshadowed by their financial dependence on the audited companies. In light on several large audit failures, the users of the audit report have demanded more information be released regarding the company and the audit process. In response to this, several standard setting bodies have released new regulatory suggestions regarding the audit report. Among the revised regulations that are relevant to Sweden are the ISA 700 (revised) and the newly created ISA 701, both of which become effective starting December 2016. FAR, the Swedish Professional Institution for Authorized Accountants and Auditors, have expressed concerns regarding the effect of the implementation of the Key Audit Matters in combination with the Swedish confidentiality clause, by which auditors must abide. These revisions are meant to increase the informative value of the audit report for the users, where the main users of the audit report are non-professional investors. Due to this, along with lacking research on the topic of Swedish non-professional investors in this context, we have chosen to focus our thesis on the effects of the changes to the audit report in relation to the investment behavior of this specific group. Research Question: How is the Swedish adaptation of ISA 700 (revised) and ISA 701 likely to impact the perceived value of the new audit report to young Swedish nonprofessional investors? We have conducted an online questionnaire with an attached case, derived from a listed British company that has already made similar changes to their audit report format. Based on the responses of 100 young Swedish non-professional investors, we found that the new changes to the audit report, as we presented them, had positive effect on the young non-professional investors perception on the audit report. Of the respondents, 64% viewed the new audit report as significantly more informative than the current Swedish audit report. Both new information, in the form of the audit resolution paragraph, and useful information, in the form of the Key Audit Matters paragraph, statement of the audit firm, and movement of the audit opinion, was perceive by the respondents. In addition to this, we found that 63% of our sample would read the audit report in the future, as compared to 49% today. However, we are unsure of whether these positive effects will be observe following the Swedish implementation of the changes, due to FAR and Swedish auditors hesitation toward the Key Audit Matters.

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Matthee, Craig Ashley. "The potential of internal audit to enhance public supply chain management outcomes." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3060.

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Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
Public sector reform in South Africa became a reality with the change in political dispensations in 1994. In South Africa the transformation of the public sector became critical in order to provide for a better life for all. This required regulatory frameworks that could establish good governance and a holistic transformation of the public sector. Similar, to other countries financial management reform became critical to establish high performance public sector institutions, but specific to South Africa, to support equity in society. In this study the assumption is made that Internal Audit has a critical role toward the supply chain management framework, especially in relation to the two broad underlying motivations for procurement reform in South Africa. These are good governance and preferential procurement toward socio-economic empowerment. Both Internal Audit and supply chain management are private sector management methodology that forms part of the financial management reform of the public sector.

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Koblížková, Martina. "Audit obecně prospěšné společnosti." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2011. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-114551.

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The thesis is focused on non-profit organizations auditing, especially on public benefit corporations. Thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. Theoretical part is dedicated to general definition of non-profit sector and specification of public benefit corporations. This is followed by the definition of auditing and auditing procedures. In the practical part of thesis these auditing procedures are applied to the selected public benefit corporation. The main aim of the thesis is to acquaint the reader with the specifics of auditing in non-profit sector

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Kgatjepe, Maaria Ishmael. "Legislative oversight and accountability of public finances : a case of Limpopo, Provincial Legislature for the period between 1994 and 2010." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2331.

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Thesis (MPA. (Public Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 requires the Legislature in Local, Provincial and National Governments to hold the Executive accountable and continue to do oversight on the work of government. The Legislature in executing its work, sometimes make use of the Auditor General’s reports, Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) reports and all other reports submitted by constitutional institutions, the Executive and other agents of the State. The study investigates whether the Legislature understands its mandate as legislated and whether the legislation is efficient and effective in ensuring accountability and conducting oversight of the work of the Executive. The research methodology used in this study is the qualitative approach. The respondents were clear that the Legislature understand its business as legislated, and further that there is a challenge at implementation of these important functions of the Legislature. There is varying implementation due to resources, capacity constraints and lack of commitment. The study recommends that the training of Members of the Legislature and staff, allocation of adequate resources and proper planning. The commitment of the Members of the Executive to the process and implementation of consequence management for poor performance and key interventions to ensure efficient and effective oversight of public finances in the province

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Daniels, Nokuthula. "An evaluation of treasury oversight and budget under-spending in selected Eastern Cape Provincial Departments." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/3265.

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The investigation of this study focused on the ability of provincial government departments in South Africa to spend allocated revenues on activities adequately, with a direct bearing on social and economic development. The research presents an analysis of two selected Eastern Cape Provincial Government departments’ expenditure for a three-year timeframe (the fiscal years from 2009–2012), with a focus on the oversight role played by the Provincial Planning and Treasury department in instilling fiscal discipline in the provinces, and the potentially detrimental effect of under-spending on provincial service delivery. Among other things mentioned and discussed are, firstly, the fiscal policy; secondly, the funding of provincial departments; thirdly, the role and responsibilities of the Provincial Planning and Treasury department. The study adopted a qualitative methodology which focussed on the perspective of the insider who has experienced first-hand the activities or procedures under scrutiny in the selected provincial departments. Further, the qualitative researcher believed that first-hand experience provides the most meaningful data. In support of this, the respondents were asked twenty-two questions, the first five of which were based on the need to understand their personal particulars. A semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to 43 officials and 22 of those questionnaires were returned.

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Sigcau, Ntsikelelo. "Investigating variables that have impact on annual financial statement audit report outcomes in local government." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021004.

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The third sphere of government (Local Government) has been persistently clouded by unfavourable Annual Financial Statement (AFS) audit reports. This results in local government losing credibility and its stakeholders losing confidence in the institutions or municipalities. In-depth analysis of the root cause of this dilemma is an opportunity for the municipality to reorganise its house and redeem its dignity and credibility to its stakeholders through addressing the identified challenges. The importance of the study can be attributed to the need to investigate the root causes of unfavourable audit opinion and recommend possible remedies that can assist municipalities to improve their audit report outcomes which in turn will improve the confidence of its stakeholders. The primary objective of the study was to investigate variables that impact on the audit report outcomes on annual financial statements of the municipalities that are within Alfred Nzo District (AND) Jurisdiction, including Alfred Nzo District Municipality (ANDM). This was achieved through investigating the root causes of the audit report outcomes with specific focus on the relationship that exists between the management role and audit outcomes of the Alfred Nzo District Municipalities. This was measured by the municipality’s leadership, governance, internal controls and human capital management. Convenient sampling was used wherein 150 questionnaires (30 per municipality) were sent out to the selected employees in all the municipalities in the Alfred Nzo District. Out of the questionnaires that were sent out, 103 responses were received. These were analysed to draw findings, conclusion and recommendations. The empirical results of the study revealed that there is strong evidence that leadership, governance and human capital management have a positive influence on the municipality’s AFS audit report outcomes. It also revealed that there is overwhelming evidence that internal controls have a positive influence on the municipality’s AFS audit report outcomes. The study recommends how leadership, governance, internal controls and human capital management must be improved. It also provides future research recommendations to improve this study.

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Kalibjian, Jeffrey R. "Accountable Security Architectures for Protecting Telemetry Data." International Foundation for Telemetering, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/606436.

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Today there are many security solutions available which can facilitate both protection and sharing of telemetry data. While the technologies behind these solutions are maturing [1] [2] [3], most products lack a consistent and coherent paradigm for enforcing who is able to access the secured data, what is done with it, and insuring it can be recovered if the person who secured it is disabled.

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Khashe, Sivuyile Churchill. "An assessment of the Auditor General's contribution to good governance in the public service: a case of the Eastern Cape provincial administration." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/1675.

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The Office of the Auditor -General’s role is by no means minor, for it plays a major role in curbing corruption and acts as a ‘’watchdog’’ of the nation over public funds. Amidst high mismanagement and misuse of public resources, as well as corruption, especially in developing countries, the major question one asks is how effective the Auditor -General can be in ensuring good governance within state departments so as to improve service delivery. The gaps between approved budgets and the realisation of policy and development goals stand among key governance challenges in many developing countries. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) play an important role in holding governments to account. However, many SAIs including AGSA face serious challenges when trying to evaluate the expenditures and performance of government agencies. Therefore this study suggests that more resources should be invested in the office of the AG so as to allow it to carry out its duties without impediments. Good governance and public finance accountability is becoming increasingly important in the public sector. One means of effecting good governance and accountability is through auditing. For this reason the Office of the Auditor-General through the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 (Act 108 of 1996 section 216 (1)) was established to facilitate and encourage good governance and effective accountability through auditing. To this end the study assesses the contribution made by the AGSA in encouraging good governance practices in government departments in the Eastern Cape Province.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Public auditing'

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