Abstract:
The main purpose of this study is to reveal the perception of staff on internal audit in Northern
Provincial Council of Sri Lanka. Internal audit mainly ensures the effective and efficient of
operations, increase quality and user’s reliability on the financial reporting and legal compliance
of the firm. Questionnaire used in this study which was collected from government officers who
work in Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka through a 5 points Likert scale questionnaire
covering eight major areas of internal audit, internal audit report, accountability & transparency,
internal auditor’s independence, competence of auditor, materiality, audit evidence, true and fair
view, performance audit and resources & facilities. Descriptive and inferential analysis
performed with the help of SPSS latest version in this study. Mean analysis confirmed that
perception of staff on internal audit report and audit evidence are in satisfactory level other areas
of internal audit are below than satisfactory level in Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka.
Independent sample t-test revealed that there is mean difference between perception of head of
the department/division and perception of chief internal auditor/ internal auditor/ internal audit
staff on internal audit in Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka however which is not a
significant mean difference. According to the staff’s perception, accountability & transparency,
internal auditor’s independence, competence of auditor, materiality, true and fair view,
performance audit and resources & facilities utilization of internal audit should be improved. It
will lead for the effective and efficient operations, increase quality and reliability of financial
reporting and legal compliance of Northern Provincial Council.
