The Role of Internal Audit on Risk Assessment Practices in Ethiopia: A Study in Selected Public Sector Offices in Dawuro Zone

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.