FACTORS AFFECTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GOVERNMENT AUDITS: EVIDENCE OF GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES IN KENYA

Government conduct audit regularly to ensure that there is efficient utilization of public resources to all its ministries. There is lack of effective monitoring and supervision of audit systems in all government ministries. Therefore, this study sought to assess factors affecting the effectiveness of the government audits of ministries in Kenya. The study specifically sought to assess how the audit control environment, challenges to the independence of internal auditors, level of technical competency and the internal audit compliance affect effectiveness of audits of government ministries in Kenya. This study reviewed agency theory, institutional theory and assessed determinants affecting effectiveness and relevance to this study. The study anchored on the descriptive research design targeting 84 respondents from 21 ministries in Kenya. This study adopted stratified sampling technique in selecting the sample size. A questionnaire was the main research instrument for collecting data. Data collected was analysed by both inferential and descriptive statistics. The regression model was adopted to establish the effects of relationship between variables. The study concluded that legislation of audit charter clearly defined roles of internal auditor while internal auditors were graded and remunerated according to the roles and responsibilities. The study concluded that independence of internal auditors mostly improved effectiveness of government audits in ministries and was significant. There should be need to ensure appropriate supervision by senior staff be provided. The major findings on regression coefficient; the study recommended that effectiveness should be based on internal compliance test which should be embraced with effectiveness of internal auditors on effectiveness of government ministries. Another research can be conducted to examine the effect of internal audit compliance on the effectiveness of government audit in other public institution to fill the remaining percentage. Keywords: Audit Control Environment, Auditor's Independence, Technical Competency, Internal Audit Compliance CITATION: Obwocha, N. V., & Mereipei, T. (2021). Factors affecting the effectiveness of government audits: Evidence of government ministries in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 8 (2), 501 – 520.