Lack of charter affecting internal auditing services

Malawi Government says lack of a proper legal framework to support public service audit charter is one of the challenges affecting the internal auditing function.

Principal Secretary (Finance) in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) Patrick Matanda said this in a paper titled ‘The role of internal auditors in the public management’ presented at the recent Institute of Internal Auditors Malawi (IIA-M) annual conference.

He added that high turnover of skilled, qualified and experienced internal auditors in Local Authorities (LA) also pose a big challenge to the public service.

“The numbers [of internal auditors] are not enough to safeguard and promote accountability in public services,” he said.

Matanda advised internal auditors to change their approach, be strategic and add value to the profession and not just be there to find faults.

Matanda, who once worked as assistant accountant general, asked the private sector to speed up the development of an audit charter, saying internal auditing function cannot be effective in the absence of the guiding tool.

Government developed its internal audit charter in 2011 after realising that the function of internal auditing was not effective.