Internal Audit Characteristics, Contribution And Effectiveness

• Main Author: Tong, Chue Qun
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: HF5001-6182 Business
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/44010/1/Tong%20Chue%20Qun24.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/44010/
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

Internal auditing becomes an important tool in helping an organization achieve its objectives when effectively implemented. Organizations with internal audit activities are better able to identify business risks and system inefficiencies and ineffectiveness, take appropriate corrective action, and ultimately support continuous improvement. Therefore its contribution and effectiveness must be monitored in order to maintain and enhance internal audit’s credibility. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to investigate contribution and effectiveness of internal audit and its determinants such as internal audit characteristics, audit committee characteristics and interaction between internal audit and audit committee. The study was based on data collected using mail survey. Questionnaires were used to collect data and the sample was obtained from 172 Malaysian listed companies in Bursa Malaysia. The finding showed that the internal audit effectiveness generally is at average level and internal audit contributed the most in internal control. The result revealed that the effectiveness of internal audit is associated with the internal audit competence, work performance of internal audit and involvement of audit committee in dismissal of CAE. The results indicated that the higher the internal audit contribution in control leads to higher internal audit effectiveness. Besides, there is evidence suggesting that the strong relationship between internal audit competence, work performance and involvement of audit committee in dismissal of CAE with internal audit effectiveness is due to internal audit contribution in control which functions as the mediator.