THE NATURE OF INTERNAL AUDIT SYSTEM IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION REGULATORY ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Given today’s complex and rapidly changing management climate, most large companies, major institutions, and governmental agencies are implementing continuous improvements to achieve efficiency and assure all concerned parties of solid corporate governance. The nature of the interval audit system simply means explaining some of the key terms in the project topic, the internal system. According to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) definition of internal auditing, the internal audit system should provide the independent, thoroughly timely and objective result of quantitative and qualitative testing to senior management and in essence, help evaluate organizational risk management. Auditing is an independent checking  and investigation of the books of accounts and  vouchers of a business with a view to enabling the audit to report whether the balance  sheet and profit and loss account are properly drawn up so as to show a true and  fair  view of the state of the affairs and the best of the information and explanations obtained by the Auditors and that they comply with the rules laid down  by SAP (Statements of Standard Accounting Practice) and other statutory regulations.  The audit is of two types, namely. Internal audit is a review of the operation procedures and records of the business internal auditing is itself an internal control that operates by appraising and reporting on the effectiveness of the other controls. Thus, its main objectives are to assist management in discharging its responsibilities and to evaluate compliance with corporate procedures. The role of internal auditors, therefore, is to provide an overall assurance to management that all key risks within an organization are managed effectively so that the organization can achieve its strategic objective. External Audit: The external auditors are officers from a supervisor agency or independent firm to examine accounts, document independently. However, this project topic is restricted to internal audit system, take the National Board for technical education as a case study.

1.2   STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Trust in the process of financial accounting and auditing is been undermined by our present-day high-profile corrupt practices in major institutions and organizations. Thus, as a result, it is the seeming failure of the internal audit system not giving value for the finances of the educational institutions and the resulted effects is responsible for the poor quality delivery of education. So also is the mechanism put in place to curb these corruption has not been effective. In response, it has become necessary to undertake, examine and evaluate the problematic nature of the internal audit system in the educational institutions and regulatory organization and to see whether the process could be effective or not.

 

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The objectives of this resource project are as follows: –

i.  Evaluate the nature of the internal audit system in an educational institution’s regulatory authority.

ii.  To determine the effectiveness or otherwise of such an internal audit system.

 

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research study shall proffer an answer to the following questions

i.   What is the nature of the internal audit system in a regulatory authority?

ii.   Does the internal audit system in a regulatory authority effective or not?

 

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The significance of every research project is a set of standards that outlines, the perceived or real contributions of the research.

This research study would be of immense benefit to the accounting profession, policymakers and leaders at the helm of affairs in various institutions because, the ideal solution will, of course, be the achievement of a proper internal  audit system that will assist public  and private organization to meet overall corporate  objectives by establishing a systematic and disciplined approach to assessing, evaluating and improving the quality and effectiveness of the process.

Also, this study will provide a rationale for introducing programs designed to aid students and researchers who intend to make research on the internal audit system.

 

1.6   SCOPE OF THE  STUDY

The scope of the study shall be limited to evaluating the nature of the internal audit system and find out whether this system is effective or not in the educational institution, the regulatory authority.

Furthermore, the research study shall cover the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Kaduna as a case study.

1.7   HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDING OF THE CASE STUDY

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) was established by Decree (now Act) No. 9 of  January 1977. The decree empowers the board to among other things: –

i. Advice the federal government on and coordinate all aspects of technical and vocational education falling outside the universities.

ii. Make recommendations on the national policy necessary for the training of technicians, craftsmen, and other middle-level manpower.

iii. Determine, after consultation with the National manpower board, the industrial training find and such other relevant bodies the skill and middle-level manpower needs of the country in the industrial commercial and another relevant field of the purpose of planning, training facilities, etc.

iv. Inquiry into and advise the federal government on the financial needs, for both recurrent and capital expenditure of polytechnics and other technical institutions to enable them to achieve the objective of producing the trained manpower needs of the country.

v. Receive block grants in accordance with such formula as may be noted that items iv and v above particularly require audit control towards ensuring that financial and material resources allocated to educational institutions under NBTE are done with are the highest conformity to government financial rules and regulations.

In addition, Decree (now Act) it of  August 1985 entitled: National minimize standards and establishment of the institution” further empowers NBTE to prescribe minimum standards, entry qualifications and accreditation of all academic programs on all the institution under purview or supervision of the Board. Another amendment to the above decree (Now Act) gave birth to decree number an of January 1993 which empowers the board of recommending the establishment of polytechnics, college of agriculture and technical colleges in Nigeria.

The membership of the board cut across ministries of education, labor, agriculture, industry, college of agriculture and some professional bodies among others.

 

It has six (6) standing committees namely.

i.   Appointment and promotions committees (A&PC)

ii.  Programs evaluation and development committees (PE&DC)

iii.  Academic Planning and Research Committee (A&RC)

iv.  Finance and financial purpose committee (which has a lot to do with this research project) and

v.   Tenders Committee (TC)

Each committee has a specific function relevant to the smooth administration and the discharge of the statutory functions of the board assigned to it.

The board’s organization indicated that it has four operational departments namely:

i. Personnel management department comprising establishment management services and manpower and training divisions.

ii. Programs department comprising polytechnics, colleges of agriculture and science, technical institution and post-HND/Polytechnics  Research Division

iii. Planning Research and statistics department comprising academic planning, physical planning, research and statistic divisions, and three  (3) other units, computer services, maintenance and transport, and SIWES,

iv. Finance and supplies department comprising main Account Budget and Budgetary and store divisions. The above four operational departments are being  overseen and coordinated by the office of the executive secretary namely:

a.  Boards secretariat

b.  Protocol/public relation unit

c.  Internal Audit unit ( the unit that is directly relevant to this research project, and which we will study further in the course of this project).

d.  Legal affairs unit.

e.  Security unit

f.   UNESCO – Nigeria/TVE project office.

 

As indicated in term iii. Above, the internal audit unit of NBTE is a very vital unit or Division of the Board under the office of the executive secretary. The unit is structured into four sections in such a way that all the functions of the internal audit system are clearly defined and appropriately staffed to take care of the various activities of the board. The sections were not rigidly structured and have been subjected to review in a number of items.  Such reviews were usually approved by the management to handle some recurring work of internal auditing programs which comprehensively covers all aspects of an internal audit system that are equally subject to review. The main structures of the board internal audit system unit division are as follows.

i. General auditing section: This section directly reviews the operational control associated with administering the overall activities of the board.

ii. Financial operational section: this section directly review the activities related to resource allocation utilization and the control process to provide the assurances that financial resources are obtained economically and used efficiently and effectively in the accomplishment of the and down rules and objectives. It also deals with the provision acquisition of stores.

iii.  Accounting operation section: this section deals  with control within and around the accounting system  installed to ensure  that all financial transaction and activities are accurately recorded in the system, completely and promptly, carry out a complete and continuous audit of the account and records of revenues, expenditure, stores and other properties of the board towards ensuring accountabilities and as in insurance against fraud and other malpractices.

iv.  Stock verification section: This section deals with the review of physical control for the protection of the board’s assets and ensuring some safeguards assets and properties.

The staffing of the internal audit unit of the board is said to be fairly good with a principal internal auditor heading the unit assisted by seven other officers varying ranks and cadres of HATISS 07 to HATISS 11 and some seven other supporting staff. The summary of the numerous functions of the board internal  audit and in line with the traditional audit functions and objectives include among others:

 

a. provision of timely advice to the executive secretary on government financial regulations and audit valuation.

b.  Routine financial checks to prevent, detect and report any observation irregularities.

c.  Pre-auditing of payment vouchers with proper supporting document

d.  Investigation and reporting cases of malpractices

e.  Identification/pre-auditing of the terminal benefit of retired/deal staff.

f.   Pre-auditing of all staff claims to ensure that they were in line with the financial various standing ad-hoc committee staff appointment etc

g.  Verification of workshop/accreditation cost estimate

h.  Training and retraining of board internal auditors

i.   Liaising with external auditors

j.   Stocktaking

k.   Monitoring of the revenue base of board

l.    Pre-verification of salaries before payment

m.  Inspection of all goals purchased by the board before usage.

n.   And any other audit functions that may be assigned by the executive secretary from time to time

1.8   DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

i.  Audit: Accounting to Webster business dictionary is an examination of accounting documents and of supporting evidence for the purpose of reaching propriety fairness, consistency and conformity with accepted principles.

ii. Internal audit: This refers to the institutionalized examination of accounting procedures with an organization.

iii. Internal audit control: they are measured adopt for effective auditing in an organization

iv.   NBTE/the board: National Board for Technical Education.

v.   Financial regulation: these are rules, regulations, and guideline governing the financial transition.

Stock verification: It refers to the confirmation of goods and merchandized supplied in terms of value for money quality and quality.

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