Internal Audit as a Management Tool for Control in the Decentralized Autonomous Governments in the Morona Santiago Province

Abstract

Internal control provides the administrative and financial operations in the institutions with a reasonable safety. In the discussion on the risk response models there is an internal control model named Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO), which was chosen as it guarantees: 1) compliance with the laws and regulations; 2) reliability in the financial information; and 3) assets safeguard. This research is driven by the need to comparatively assess the internal control in the internal audit units belonging to decentralized autonomous cantons of the Morona Santiago Province and to know its influence on the institutional management control. To the effects of this study, a sample with nine out of thirteen cantons in the said province was used. The methodology to obtain information on the management of the internal audit units regarding the institutional control was based in interviews to administrative and financial directors as well as the application of an internal control assessment questionnaire targeting either the internal auditors or other persons responsible for this area in the institutions. The fundamental conclusion states that, inside every public institution, the compliance with the internal control technical standards provided by the General Comptroller’s Office of the State and supervised by the internal audit units promotes reasonable guarantees to attain efficiently their objectives.