Compliance and effectiveness of internal audit with the international professional practices framework: A study on ministries

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the internal audit practices in ministries yield results in accordance with the mandatory elements of the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF), namely whether the results are suitable for the definition and purpose of internal audit, whether ethical rules are followed and whether the standards are followed, and the problematic parts are determined, testing the elements and making inferences about the obstacles to the effective operation of internal audit in ministries and offering solutions. Ministries are the leading institutions in the internal audit system, and the findings of the study conducted in ministries shed light on all public institutions that have an internal audit practice. Data were collected by the method of questionnaire from the internal auditors and the heads of the internal audit unit, and also by the interview method from the heads of the internal audit unit. 70 people responded to the questionnaire, and in the interviews, 15 people, all of the heads of internal audit units from the ministries, were interviewed. As a result of the study with the data collected by the questionnaire, the problematic areas about compliance of the IPPF; Independence, competency, proficiency, external assesment, to oversee the work under the responsibility of the CAE by a party outside, the communications and relations of the CAE with senior management, evaluation by internal audit activity of the potential for the occurrence of fraud and how the organization manages fraud risk , to move the matter to a higher authority if management accepts an unacceptable risk, to develop and document by internal auditors a plan for each engagement, to coordinate the activities and sercives by CAE to minimize duplication of efforts, to base by internal auditors their conclusions and engagement results on appropriate analysis and evaluations have been identifed. In addition, it was found that compliance with attribute standards remained at lower levels than compliance with performance standards, and compliance with assurance services remained at lower levels compared to consulting services. It has been observed that as the experience increases, stricter evaluations are made regarding compliance with the IPPF, stricter evaluations are made on standards in case of having a CIA certificate, and the CGAP certificate is ineffective in the evaluation. In the interview data; compliance problems about IPPF in terms of independence, relations with senior management, competency, proficiency, documentation and external audit have been identified. The problematic areas regarding the effectiveness of internal audit; the effects of the political and bureaucratic structure, the awareness and support of the senior management, the conflicts with the inspection boards, the structure and effectiveness of the IDDK, the cultural approaches, perception and communication, the structure of the internal audit departments, the career and motivation of the internal auditors have been identified and suggestions have been made for an effective internal audit in the public sector.