AUDITING PROCEDURE AND INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM {A CASE STUDY OF UNION BANK OF NIGERIA PLC}

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION 

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 

An audit involves the independent examination of an expression person in accordance with the terms of engagement and the observance of statutory regulations and professional requirement (Okolie, 2008). According to Milichamp (2003) the primary objective of an audit is to produce a report by the auditor of his opinion of the truth and fairness of financial statement, so that any person reading and using them can have belief in them. Corporate management is a genetic term used to describe the way by which big and established companies with large networks are controlled of the purpose of achieving set goals. Management is a universally acceptable and necessary concept irrespective of whether or not an organization exists to make profit. It takes place at all levels in an organization and easy manager performs essentially the same function whether he belongs to top or middle or first line management. The difference lies in magnitude of the task and the scope and degree of the authority. American Institute of Certified Public Accountant, Chicago clearing House (1982) defined management as a process by which scarce resources are combined to achieve given objective. It refers to the people that carry out the activities that are the manager. Put different by Alter (1996), management may be described as the achievement of organization goals through people and after resources. The Manager’s job is to combined and co-ordinate human, material and technical resources in the best way to achieve these goals. Managers may not be directly involved in production; they produce to achieve the organization’s set goals.Management indeed is a critical ingredient in the five MS. Management, manpower, machinery, money and materials; which are the basic resources of any organization. Corporate management has become complex in recent times. The emphasis on decentralization, increasing use of delegation of authority and even in volume of trade has made the art of management so complex and intriguing that only managers who master the modern scientific method of management can cope with the increasing demands scientific method of management can cope with the increasing demand required by the poison. To asses the complexity of the art of management, in the current increasing wake of business fraud, embezzlement and the cash squeezes which has crippled many companies because of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) and its attended foreign exchange and raw materials security. In order to cope with the current situation and keep their business profitable, management has to look more inwardly, to increase the profitability of the company and to keep the overall activity of the company under control. This can only be achieve through good effective internal control system of which internal auditing is a major problems and performance of every department in the company.As representative of top management, the internal auditor is interested in determining whether each branch or department has a clear understanding of its assignment whether it is adequately stated, maintains good records, protects cash and inventories and other assets properly, co-operates with other departments and in general carries out effectively the functions provided for it in the overall plan and organization of the business.