Drivers of Audit Quality in South African Public Sector

Abstract

This paper examined the relationship between leadership, financial management, risk manageent, governance and clean audit. The independent variables (leadership, financial management, risk manageent and governance) were extracted from the Auditor General’s reports on audit outcomes for municipalities in South Africa for the five years from 2009/10 – 2013/4, and used to determine the degree to which they are related to the achievement of clean audit outcomes. A quantitative approach (panel data regression analysis) was employed, based on a positivist paradigm, to examine the relative effects of the independent variables as key to achieving clean audit outcomes. The findings show that leadership, financial management, risk management and governance jointly have a significant relationship with clean audit outcomes, with a value of P<0,005 (which is substantially below the 5% Alpha level anticipated at the start of the research for this paper) and additionally point to the existence of a much more significant relationship between achieving a clean audit outcome and governance. The paper contributes to theory and practice. The theoretical contribution is that the independent variables (leadership, financial management, risk management,governance) need to work jointly to deliver an effective accountability and quality audit – hence futher research should examined such influence jointly and also try to add additional independent variables. The practical implication is that public sector governance may not be blamed as a single factor that causes accountability or audit issues