Internal Control as a Catalyst for Clean Audit Outcomes in the Local Government: The Moderating Role of Information Technology

There is a pressing need for effective monitoring of internal control systems to ensure that municipalities improve and sustain audit outcomes. In this context, there is the need for the management of municipalities to monitor the performance and maintenance of the adequate systems of internal controls available. The objective of this study is to examine the moderating role of information technology (IT) system governance in internal control on the achievement of clean audit outcome. The paper applied a quantitative approach with the aid of simple regression analysis. Data analysis was conducted in two phases; the first phase without IT governance and the second phase introduced the IT governance. Results from the analysis showed that the first phase without the IT system governance was insignificantly related to clean audit outcome; but the second phase with the IT system governance showed a p-value of less than 0.01 which shows that the moderating role of IT governance improved the model to be significantly related to clean audit outcome. The practical implication is that the effectiveness of municipal internal control toward an improved audit outcome can be enhanced significantly if information technology system governance is installed and managed efficiently in local municipalities. Future researcher on municipal internal, provincial or national control should include the IT system governance in their research model.