مدى التزام المدققين الداخليين العراقيين بمعايير التدقيق الداخلي الدولية للحد من الغش والاحتيال

THE EXTENT OF THE IRAQI INTERNAL AUDITORS' COMMITMENT TO THE INTERNATIONAL INTERNAL AUDITING STANDARDS TO RESTRAIN CHEATING AND FRAUD:

Internal auditing is considered one of the most significant jobs in all facilities since it is a vital instrument in the administration of work and the insurance of operation performance due to the crucial role it has in assessing and promoting the internal auditing system. It also contributes to the evaluation and improvement of risk management because internal auditing represents the major defense line to restrain cheating and fraud.
Since this job is so momentous, it made the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) put forward international standards for internal auditing to serve as a guide and a reference to perform the work of the internal auditor. In order for this job to be efficient and achieve its goals, it has to rely on such standards.
Hence, this research aims at measuring the extent of the Iraqi internal auditors’ commitment to international auditing standards in the public sector facilities and also to measuring the actual procedures to restrain cheating and fraud accordingly.
In order to attain the objectives of this research, a questionnaire has been formulated. This questionnaire has been distributed on internal auditors in a sample Iraqi public sector facilities which were (19) in number in addition to the auditors in the Iraqi fedral supreme Board of Audit. (200) copies of the questionnaire have been distributed where (174) were returned which form a 87% of the total number. The researcher used (SPSS) to analyze the data available.

One of the results of measuring the extent of the Iraqi internal auditors’ commitment in the public sector facilities to international auditing standards for all sectors was that point (29)-which relates to the internal auditing manager’s task of looking into the final report being submitted, received the highest mean which is (4.3) and with a rate of accord by the internal auditors which is (85.9%). Point (18) which indicates the internal auditing manager’s disclosure of cases of non-commitment to international auditing standards-received the least mean which is (3.3) and the accord rate among internal auditors is (65.9%).
As regards the measurement of actual procedures to restrain cheating and fraud, point(6) -which relates to the internal auditing manager’s notification of his superiors and the Administration Board about the important probabilities of being exposed to fraud-received the highest mean which is (4) with an accord rate among internal auditors of (80.3%) whereas point (11) which refers to the fact that the risk level affiliated with fraud is relatively low-received the lowest mean which is (3.3) with an accord rate amounting to (66.6%). The relationship between the extent of the internal auditors’ commitment to international auditing standards and the restraining of fraud and cheating has been statistically determined.
According to the afore-mentioned results, the researcher submits a number of recommendations the most important of which is that there is a necessity to adopt modern international auditing standards and to be committed to them to cope with the developments in the internal auditing activities, to achieve an ideal readiness to encounter and restrain cheating and fraud, to pursue the determination of the auditing staff’s task according to these standards in terms of the features that it should have and in terms of the requirements of its performance, responsibilities, and authorities to secure the realization of an efficient auditing. The necessity of affiliating the auditing process with the ministry concerned or directly linking it with an independent commission structurally and financially speaking to insure complete independence and also to increase the training courses for the internal auditors to enhance their expertise.