Factors influencing the effectiveness of audit committees in the public sector of Tanzania: the case of the government ministries

This study evaluated the factors influencing the effectiveness of audit committees in the public sector of Tanzania. In order to achieve this, the researcher used the case study design whereby the case of the government ministries was used to represent the overall public sector. In order to evaluate the factors influencing the effectiveness of audit committees in the public sector; the researcher used the frequency of audit committee meetings, the composition and structure of these audit committees as the variables to evaluate effectiveness. This study used questionnaires to collect data from the selected respondents within the selected ministries. Responses were obtained from twelve (12) internal auditors and twenty (20) audit committee members. Also interviews were conducted with various auditors of the National Audit Office (NAO) so as to get some clarifications on various matters related to audit committees. Data analysis was done using the One-Sample T-Test and other descriptive statistics, all of these were done using SPSS. The findings for this study revealed that audit committees in the public sector conducted an average of five (5) meetings in the last financial year hence making them effective. However it was also found out that audit committees are less effective in overseeing financial matters due to the fact that they have only one (1) independent member and only one (1) member who is knowledgeable in the matters related to accounting, auditing and finance. Therefore this study has recommended that the number of independent audit committee members should be increased to at least three (3), furthermore all the members should be financial literate and they should attend accounting seminars and training frequently to improve their effectiveness.