Exploration of the usefulness of internal audit reports on water supply: the case of Madibeng local municipality.
Mogale, Mitta Mahlodi
Mogale, Mitta Mahlodi
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Abstract
For many years, the Bojanala district municipalities have been beset by systemic issues that have hampered their ability y to deliver essential services, such as water, to the people in the areas. The problem that motivated this study was the potentially inadequate prioritisation of the water supply risk factors, which caused community unrest and reputational damage to the organisations and created
unhealthy living conditions for the citizens. Therefore, the general idea behind the study was to determine what internal audit functions can do to improve such poor water delivery through its recommendations. It is imperative to explore the significant role of internal auditors in assisting the management and the council in understanding the systematic challenges in the provision of the water supply in the Madibeng Local Municipality. The present research endeavoured to explore the usefulness of internal audit reports on the water supply in and by the Madibeng local municipality. What is meant by the usefulness of the internal audit reports has been addressed, followed by a description of the supporting research objectives, namely: to understand the responsibilities and duties of the local government to provide communities with sufficient water; to identify the level of the water supply performance by the municipalities; to understand the value of the internal audit
reports in assisting the municipalities in mitigating the risk of water supply, and in obtaining the views of stakeholders on the value of the internal audit reports. An exploration of some of the major water supply paradigms and internal audits was carried out by reviewing the literature in the field. The literature review was conducted to evaluate some of the different approaches to the legislative
frameworks on local government in South Africa and the role of the internal audit function within the local government. This has helped identify the patterns and themes within various academic contributions and to explain how the internal audit reports can be used. Furthermore, a review of the academic and government publications on the internal audits and water supply, provided valuable
information for this research. Semi-structured personal interviews were also carried out with thirteen (13)participants from the Madibeng local municipality. These participants included relevant management, internal audit, and the audit committee members. Manual processes and ATLAS.ti were used to analyse the data collected. The data were coded, analysed and narrowed down to five (5) themes. The most common themes are found to be, firstly, inadequate water provision; secondly, challenges in budget and water provision infrastructure management; thirdly, challenges with significant
role-players in water provision management. The fourth theme pertains to internal control, leadership and political influence. The fifth theme focuses on the infrequent water supply internal audit reports with limited to no resources to implement any recommended corrective measures. The findings reveal that the respondents in this research value the importance of internal audit reports; however, drawbacks, such as the unavailability of funds, will – amongst other factors – continuously pose challenges. The results are substantiated by both the local and international literature. The main contribution of this study is to highlight the essential role of internal audit in the water supply and to focus on its importance in improving the provision of water through its recommendation. Therefore, the study proposes recommendations on how internal audit reports can be used and implemented to ensure the effective provision of the water supply in the Madibeng local municipality.
Description
Submitted to the Faculty of Economics and Finance for the degree Magister Technologiae in Internal Auditing In the Faculty of Economics and Finance
at the Tshwane University of Technology
Date
2022-12-03
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Infrastructure maintenance, Internal control, Internal audit report, Service delivery, Water supply, municipalities