Factors contributing to the effective audit performance of public audit institutions case study: National Audit Office of Tanzania

The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting the effectiveness of audit performance of the public or Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) taking National Audit office of Tanzania as the case study. There were five independent variables whose effect on audit effective performance was investigated. These are; Legislative framework, Auditor independence, Audit Standards, Stakeholders involvement and cooperation, and Public expectation from the audit. This was an exploratory study where data was collected by way of a survey using pretested questionnaires. Respondents were auditors of NAOT working in the Dar es salaam region. 100 questionnaires were distributed but only 82 usable questionnaires were completed and collected. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to test the reliability coefficient which was .77, and to summarize the responses into averages and percentages to enable analysis of the findings. Findings from the study indicate that generally, all these variables were found to have an effect on effective audit performance though at varying strengths. Auditor independence had the strongest effect on effective audit performance according to responses. This was followed by legislative framework, then stakeholders’ involvement and cooperation, and finally, auditing standards. It was also found that the general public has a biased expectation on auditors to discover fraud and errors in the audits conducted. Respondents gave a number of additional comments to clarify factors that they thought affected their performance in audit. It is recommended that Supreme Audit Institutions, e.g, NAOT, should reinforce independence to their auditors by addressing issues that increase familiarity with clients, e.g., staying in clients’ buildings and not rotating auditors regularly. Another recommendation is on the need to regularly train auditors, especially on new and revised standards as standards are the primary guide to the audit work. Supervisors are also encouraged to increase their visits to the clients place where the audit field work is going on for the purpose of helping auditees to solve challenges faced.