مطالعات تجربی حسابداری مالی (May 2023)
The Design of the Internal Audit implementation Model in the Iranian Public Sector Institutions
Abstract
Public Sector Internal Audit, by delivering reliable and consulting services in line with improvement and eliminate challenges can support organizations to achieve goals and provide better services. The purpose of this study is to provide a model for the establishment of internal audit in the public sector entities in Iran. The approach of the research is based on qualitative method by using fuzzy Delphi model. The statistical population consisted of 85 experts and elites in the internal audit who were selected as the expert group of the research by using non-probability sampling technique. Finally, after the consensus of the experts, we establish the framework internal audit in public sector by considering external environment and our country criteria. This framework can assisting ministers and heads of state agencies in promoting the level of performance and evaluation of financial and operational accountability in addition to growth and improvement of the financial oversight system and the increase of efficiency, effectiveness and economic scale in the public sector.1- IntroductionInternal audit, as a part of the internal control system and one of the important components of corporate governance, plays a significant role in creating added value by improving the quality level of the organization's operations and activities and complying with laws and regulations and their implementation methods.Internal audit is one of the effective tools in the process of realizing and evaluating the level of financial and operational accountability. In this process, the government acts as a respondent and citizens and representatives will play a role as receivers of the answer. In such a system (if such an approach is accepted), the minister or the head of the executive body, in terms of the heavy responsibility he has for accountability, designs and implements appropriate control mechanisms to ensure compliance with laws and regulations. The questions raised in this research can be summarized as follows:Main question 1: What is the pattern of establishing internal audit in government institutions of the public sector of Iran?The purpose of this research is to provide a model for the establishment of internal audit in the government agencies of the public sector of our country.2- Literature ReviewIn a report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2011) examined the role of internal audit and internal control as a means of strengthening the transparency and accountability of the public sector.Gamayouni (2018) in a research investigated the effect of the efficiency of the internal audit function and the implementation of the accrual-based government accounting standard on the quality of financial reporting. Dunya and Barak (2021) addressed the issue of internal control, a lever for good governance of state-owned companies in Morocco.Rahmani et al. (2014) examined the obstacles to the establishment of internal audit units in public universities in Iran. The obstacles facing the establishment of the internal audit unit are placed in 3 main groups: "Cultural, organizational and legal obstacles", "Lack of recognition, training and proper familiarity" and "Obstacles related to the employees of the internal audit unit".Nikbakht et al. (2016) in a research, analyzed Vera's data with the help of open, central and selective coding method which is specific to grounded theory approach. Moradi and Bahri Terali (2017) studied the factors affecting the effectiveness of internal audit in improving internal controls in banks and state-owned companies.3- Research MethodThe current research is an applied and developmental research. In this research, it seeks to know the existing conditions and help in the decision-making process, so it is classified as a descriptive research, and it also seeks to obtain the opinion of a large statistical community on the subject of the research, so it is a descriptive-survey research.According to the use of the fuzzy Delphi method, the statistical population of the research includes experts based on the three characteristics of "presence of representatives of expert groups", "deep knowledge of the research topic" and "breadth of opinion and knowledge". ", from among expert groups such as auditors. The head of the State Court of Audit, auditors of executive bodies, and directors of audit organizations and academic faculty members of universities who have experience in the field of internal audit using non-probability-chain or network sampling method Barfi) were selected.In this research, first, to identify the dimensions, components and indicators of the internal audit establishment model, the subject literature has been reviewed using the library study method. After identification, the examples of these cases in the public sector of our country were examined based on the opinion of experts. Considering the advantages of the fuzzy Delphi method (29FDM) compared to the traditional Delphi method (30TDM), the fuzzy Delphi method has been used in this research.4- Research findingsIn the data collection phase, 85 questionnaires were completed and presented by 100 members of the expert group. 14.1% of the respondents to the questionnaire questions are in the doctoral level, 77.6% are in the master's level, and 8.2% are in the bachelor's degree. 18.8% of the respondents to the questions of the academic questionnaire, 41.2% were accountants and 40% were auditors of the Court of Accounts.According to the education distribution of the respondents who form the expert group, the obtained results are reliable. In this research, we tried to use the most appropriate group to achieve more accurate results. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined by Cronbach's alpha method. If the obtained alpha coefficient is more than 0.7, it has an acceptable reliability test, which was obtained in this research with a coefficient of 94. Therefore, the questionnaires of this research have good reliability. Based on the results of binomial test for all items, the significance level is less than 0.01. Therefore, at the 99% significance level, the ratio of agreement and disagreement is not the same, and because the ratio of agreement is more than 0.5, the initial agreement of the experts with the items is acceptable. After the binomial test, fuzzy analysis was performed using triangular fuzzy shapes. If this number is greater than 7, it is accepted, otherwise it is rejected.5-DiscussionThe importance of the role of internal audit in public institutions has increased in the last two decades. Internal controls and auditing are considered a desirable function to assist public sector management. Because internal audit plays a fundamental role in maintaining public funds, discovering and preventing abuses and mistakes, and improving methods.6-ConclusionIn this research, an attempt was made to present the model of establishing internal audit in a local way. In this regard, with the help of the fuzzy Delphi method, according to the opinion of experts, dimensions, components and indicators were presented in the form of the mentioned model.
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