Internal control system and it's efficiency in metropolitan municipalities

The changing and evolving societal structures and the increasing needs of the population have necessitated a change in management approach. The rapid changes in the private sector have also brought about changes in the public sector. This new development has led to the modification of the traditional organizational structure in the public sector and the abandonment of inefficient elements in the service approach. The way for public institutions to fulfill their primary duties in accordance with the law and to achieve beneficial outputs for the public interest while operating with an effective, economical, and efficient service approach that focuses on efficiency and being transparent and accountable, is by ensuring the effectiveness of their internal control systems. With this aim, a path has been drawn towards the establishment of internal control systems in public institutions through the regulations introduced by Law No. 5018, which was created by utilizing international standards. In this study, the effectiveness of the internal control systems of metropolitan municipalities within public authorities and their compliance with the public internal control standards were examined. In this regard, the Activity Reports of 30 metropolitan municipalities, Action Plans for Compliance with Internal Control Standards, Audit Reports of the Court of Accounts, general reports on public internal audit of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance's Internal Audit and Coordination Board, and internal audit reports of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality for 2018-2019 were analyzed. Additionally, detailed information was requested from other metropolitan municipalities via e-mail to gain further insight into the topic. In order to establish internal control systems, a process and risk assessment study was conducted for the operational activities of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, and an exemplary application was attempted to be presented to metropolitan municipalities. The purpose of this study is to identify the compliance status of metropolitan municipalities' internal control systems with internal control standards in Türkiye, to address the deficiencies in the system, and to contribute to the establishment of an effective internal control system in metropolitan municipalities. Keywords: Internal Control, Public Internal Control Standards, Municipalities, Internal Audit, External Audit.