Use of internal control system in public: Example of metropolitan municipalities

The main purpose of this research is to determine the level of awareness of COSO internal control standards in metropolitan municipalities in Turkey. For this purpose, it was also investigated whether the standards that make up the COSO differ according to the demographic characteristics of the practitioners. In addition, the relations between the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, monitoring and evaluation standards in metropolitan municipalities where the COSO internal control system is applied are analyzed. In this context, this study is important in terms of knowing the dominance of the relevant employees of the relevant metropolitan municipalities on the subject, since the establishment of an internal control system in the public sector has become a necessity, since they must be managed properly, work and already very well. This research is based on a positivist social science approach. The sample of this research, which was carried out by adopting a quantitative research method, consists of the officials selected from among the authorized persons in strategic planning and financial services in 30 metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, as well as the general secretaries and deputy general secretaries of metropolitan municipalities, using the non-probability sampling technique, by the judicial (purposive) sampling method. Questionnaire technique was used as a data collection tool in the research. The answers of a total of 149 participants, which were obtained through the online questionnaire prepared with the help of Google Form, were evaluated and analyzed. T-Test (Independent Samples t-Test) and One Way ANOVA Correlation Analysis (One Way ANOVA) were used to analyze the data obtained with the online questionnaire. While the results of the research indicate that the effectiveness of the COSO internal control standards in metropolitan municipalities is at the expected level, the answers given regarding the relations between the structures that make up the COSO internal control standards show that the said relations are at a high level. The results obtained are of a nature that will benefit researchers, practitioners and policy makers.