Internal control of Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines

• Main Author: Auditor, Amir T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Catholic Church > Philippines; Auditing; Internal
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5506
• Institution: De La Salle University

Internal control is vital in any organization regardless whether is profit or non-profit. On the other hand, local churches should promote transparency and accountability at all times. Understanding the relevance of the former with the latter, this study investigates if church size, church age, presence of external auditor, and church classification of Roman Catholic churches affect internal control, which may serve as a basis for enhancement. Internal control pertains to control environment, control over receipts, control over disbursements, and reporting to members. It examined 31 Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Metro Manila. Results show that majority of the local Roman Catholic churches placed internal control according to the need of the institution however, findings also emphasized the importance of segregation of duties, existence of audit, provision for annual budget, and frequency of reporting to members. Using t-test and z-test, the result shows that church size, church age, presence of external auditor, and church classification do not significantly affect the internal control of Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines however, upon individual test of statements, some displays significant effect on internal control. Results of this study call for further studies to address some limitations and inclusion of other variables.