The effects of internal audit activities on fraud prevention in service organisations.

Abstract

Fraud has become one of the challenges of firms operating in the 21st century both in developing and developed countries. For instance in Uganda , service organizations have continued to record declined financial performance due to high cases of fraud. This study aimed at establishing the effect of internal audit activities on fraud prevention in service organizations using a case of platinum credit ltd Masaka branch . The objectives of the study was to establish the effect of internal controls , audit planning and audit testing on fraud prevention in service organizations . The study adopted a census approach where information was collected from all the 30 respondents. The primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of close-ended and open-ended questions. The analysis was done using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS Version21) . The analyzed data was presented in table. It was established that there was a statistical relationship between internal controls with Pearson correlation of R=0.789(table..) , audit planning with correlation of R=0.553(table..), audit testing with a correlation of R=0.189(table…) and fraud prevention in service organisations . It was concluded that service organizations were likely to gain competitive edge in the changing business environment if only they developed audit planning audit testingand internal control systems .It was recommended by the study that service organizations should recognize the need of sensitizing employees and customers on the consequences of fraud, train employees on fraud prevention , develop risk management systems and review internal control systems to promote the spirit of transparency and accountability.