THE RELEVANCE OF INTERNAL CONTROL IN AN ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1            BACKGROUND OF STUDY

International audit firms together with their government to serve as a yardstick by which they must operate failure to do so can lead this firm to changes of negative and serious financial penalties.

However, most business concerned have developed a means of checking the rate of fraud, illegal acts, misappropriation of assets etc. which had lead to many companies folding up abruptly or endeared bankrupt. One of the best preventive against crimes being committed or stated in business is through the establishment of internal control which must be under the supervision of an auditor or the directors, who should have as one of their objective, the regarding of assets, and the proper knowledge of and recording of liabilities.

Internal control, contrary to frequent misconceptions, is not operations procedures but a check on operating procedure. They are not part of the audit function, but the establishment of rules, and regulation proofs or balances.

Rules and regulation are those guides and procedures establishment for the purpose of preventing a person from handling an entire transaction without having another person proven and checking him, guiding against one person exercising complete charge over an entire department and someone else approval it is necessary to point out that there are some controls acting on the business from the outside. These are called external control. An example of this is the auditor who is expected to be government regulation decrees etc.

1.2            DEFINITION OF INTERNAL CONTROLS

Internal control system is defined as the whole system of control financial and otherwise, established by management in other to carry on the business of enterprise in an orderly and efficient manner ensure adherence to management policies safeguard the assets and secure, as far as possible the completeness and accuracy of the records. The individual component of the internal control system is known as control. This definition is further broken down to ensure a better understanding of the above.

The whole system

Internal control can be seen as single procedures. (e.g clerk a checks the calculation made by clerk B).

Financial and other wise