Examining the current situation of women's cooperatives in the perspective of internal audit: Research in Isparta province

Today, women's cooperatives, whose numbers are increasing, are among the organizations whose establishments are supported in our country. The main subject of our study is to investigate the problems experienced by women's cooperatives, which encounter various problems in their operation after their establishment, on the axis of internal audit and to produce solution suggestions. On the axis of the perception of internal control in women's cooperatives, the general situation of the cooperative and the perception of the financial situation of the cooperative were also examined. The study covers women's cooperatives in Isparta center and its surroundings. In this regard, qualitative research was conducted with women's cooperatives that agreed to participate in the study. Qualitative data obtained with the semi-structured interview form were analyzed with the MAXQDA 2020 program and code schemes were created and interpreted. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the concept and mechanisms of internal audit are not fully known and are not carried out effectively. In addition, cooperatives experience financial problems, members do not have full information about the main bodies of the cooperative, cooperatives are generally reluctant to recruit partners, organ activities generally remain on paper, the cooperative position is effective in awareness, risk management is weak, and faulty or fraudulent behavior may occur in some cooperatives. Results such as the idea have been achieved. In line with the results obtained from field studies, a new generation women's cooperative model has been proposed. The proposed new generation women's cooperative aims to provide solutions to the financing problems, management problems and sustainability of cooperatives.