Investigation of the existence of internal audit expectation gap in public sector: a case of Ministry Of Health and Social Welfare

The research intended to study the existence of internal audit expectation gap in Tanzania’s public sector, particularly in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW). The study was carried in the institutions and departments under the ministry which included MNH, MUHAS, MOI, MSD, NIMR and TFDA.The study was exploratory in nature, which was done by a way of survey. The data were collected by using questionnaires. 110 questionnaires were distributed to employees in different departments under the area of study. Respondents included accountants, Internal Auditors, procurement officers, audit committee members, management personnel, and medical personnel and other general staffs. A total of 88 questionnaires were returned, 20 questionnaires were non responsive while 2 questionnaires were distorted.The findings revealed that there is expectation gap concerning fraud prevention and detection in public sector. Internal auditors believe that fraud detection is a responsibility vested by management but the users believe that auditors should prevent and detect fraud. It was also revealed that the expectation gap exists in the reliability of the audit report; audit reports are not timely and are not communicated to auditee for implementation. Also the auditors were considered not independent in performing their duties.The study recommended that audit standards should be set in a manner that reduces ambiguity in interpreting them. Also duties and responsibilities of auditors should be clearly defined and widened to include fraud detection. The audit committee should also be strengthened in order to promote internal auditors’ independence.