Modernization Of The Public Sector Internal Audit Function Following The COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the COVID- 19 pandemic, organizations are faced with increased asset risk, susceptibility to fraud and fraudulent practices and general uncertainty. It is imperative that organizations internal audit functions are equipped to tackle these risks. There is need for the internal audit (IA) function to be more proactive in their audit approach, adopt more ICT skills and tools, broaden their scope, be more forward looking and focus on dynamic risks that the organizations face. The objective of this study is to evaluate the changing role of the internal audit function in the public health sector following technological advancements and the covid 19 pandemic. The exploratory research design was adopted with 35 questionnaires administered to public sector internal auditors in cross river state. The results were analyzed using simple percentages and themes identified and discussed. The results of this study reveal that the pandemic has affected how the IA public sector unit carries out its audit work and in response to this, some changes have been made to their audit approach. The use of ICT tools which has been a requisite given the present conditions has been adopted but has not fully become operational. Findings also reveal that the IA function is not currently part of the risk assessment exercise in their organization, which is a very essential requirement of the agile audit approach recommended in uncertain times. It was concluded from the study that the IA function needs to adopt the agile auditing technique which is particularly relevant in uncertain and changing circumstances times. The IA function of public sectors entities should fully implement the use ICT tools in their audit assignments and also adopt risk based audit approaches given increased risk that organizations face as a result of the COVID -19 pandemic. From the results above, it is recommended that the IA function needs to be proactive, leverage on ICT tools available to improve their process and functions to tackle that increased risk that public sector organizations face.