Abstract:
The study was entitled as “the role of internal audit on risk assessment practices in Ethiopia” and it
aimed to evaluate the internal auditing on risk assessment processes in selected public sector offices
within the Dawuro zone because limited research explores the role of internal audit in risk
management, its influence on control models and risk assessment, and the methods used in risk
assessment. A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect data from internal auditors and
managers through surveys and document reviews from purposefully selected eight public sectors of
Dawuro Zone. The qualitative and quantitative analysis was conducted for which encompassed
various aspects of internal audit functions, control models, risk assessment, and the implementation of
risk-based auditing and control risk self-assessment models in public sector offices. The findings of the
study state that all sectors have internal audit functions and at least four professionals in their sectors.
Sectors, operational audit requires high percentage of the sector’s resources, sector's resources, and
the majority of the sectors have implementing formal risk assessments while a few do not. Also, audit
plan preparation depends only on its cycle rather than other cases. Selected public sectors are utilizing
control models, risk assessment methods, and control risk self-assessment methods in the majority.
Generally, the findings revealed that all the sectors used internal auditing, the majority exercise
control models, and risk assessments. The study recommends that sectors give attention to adding risk
assessment and control models to their auditing structure and improving internal audit practices and
risk management strategies.
