Internal Audit Unit of Njombe District Council was established under section 45(1) of the Local Government Finances Act No.9 of 1982 (Revised, 2000), Section 13-14 of the Local Government Financial Memorandum of 2009, and the Local Government Internal Audit Manual of 2012 together with other directives (hand books for Internal auditor, International Professional Practice Frameworks) provided by the Internal Auditor General (Ministry of Finance) the Internal Auditor is the Auditor of the Local Government Authority to which he/she is employed to perform such functions. The primary role of the Internal audit unit focuses on the overall assessment of the internal control within an organization of which done by examining and evaluating the effectiveness and adequacy of such controls over all the institutions finances and accounts. Relatively to the institution internal control, it contributes to the appropriate, competent and valuable utilization over the public resources. Internal auditing is an independent and objective assurance and consulting activity that is guided by a philosophy of adding value to improve the operations of the Njombe District council. It assists the Council in accomplishing its objectives by bringing a systematic and disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the organization's risk management, control, and governance processes.
According to section 14 sub section 1 to 10, of the Local Authority Financial Memorandum of 2009 the following are the core functions of the internal audit unit:
The Internal Auditor shall in collaboration with the Accounting Officer, prepare an annual work plan for Internal Audit Section and have a copy sent to the office of the Controller and Auditor General, Minister responsible for Local government and Regional commissioner by not later than 15 of July of the year.
The Internal Auditor shall prepare the Annual Risk Based Internal Audit plan and submit to the Audit Committee and Accounting Officer for Approval.
The Internal Auditor shall not conduct and audit or investigation without a written audit
programme.
The Internal Auditor shall appraise the soundness and application of accounting financial and operational control and in a particular:
(a) Review and report on proper control over the receipt, custody and utilization of all financial resources of the council;
(b) Review and report on compliance with financial and operational procedure laid down in any written law, instruction and good accounting practice as defined by the Minister from time to time in order to ensure sound financial practice;
(c) Review and report on the correct classification and allocation of revenue and expenditure Accounts;
(d) Review and report on the reliability and Integrity of financial and operating data in order to allow for the preparation of accurate financial statements and other reports; and
(e) Review and report on the systems in place which are used to safeguard assets.
· The Internal Auditor shall keep a register of work done showing dates of field work, the date of final reports, date and nature of the responses received in respect of queries and indication of proposed follow-up activity. Such registers shall be made available to the Controller and Auditor General upon request.
· The Internal Auditor shall prepare and submit dated reports direct to the accounting officer for action and onward transmission to the Finance Committee. The accounting officer will send a copy to the Controller and Auditor General, Permanent Secretary, ministry responsible for local government and RAS within 15 working days from the date of receiving the report.
· The Internal Auditor shall prepare and submit two reports to the accounting officer:
(a) A quarterly report shall be submit to the accounting officer within 15 days after the end of the quarter: and
(b) Annual report to be been submitted to the accounting officer within 15 days after the end of the year.
After Audit reports have been prepare and signed by internal auditor will be submitted to the accounting officer, copied of such reports shall be send to the Controller and Auditor General Permanent Secretary of ministry responsible for local government and RAS with a covering letter.
The Internal Auditor shall not give or provide information to a person who has no entitlement to the information possessed.
The Internal Auditor shall always perform his duties professional and any comments, observations must be based in adequately searched facts and directed to the right official and place, failure to observe professional ethics shall lender the auditor personally responsible for any faulty conclusions arising from that audit.
The Unit has managed to prepare all quarterly reports and annual audit plans and transmitted to higher respectively authorities namely Resident Audit Office, President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government, Internal Auditor General and Regional Administrative Secretary. One audit reports is required to be prepared in every quarter, which makes a total of four reports in every financial year. Therefore, for
five years consecutively from 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 twenty reports were prepared and every financial year the unit required to prepare one Internal audit plan, for the consecutively five financial years the unit has manage to prepare and submit to the higher authority respectively.
The unit has managed to prepared annual risk based internal audit plan and submitted and approved by accounting officer and audit committee. Internal Audit Unit required to prepare one annual risk based plan every financial year, five annual risk based plan for five financial years 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 were prepared and submitted to the higher respectively authority (Controller and Auditor General office, Regional
Administrative Secretary). The unit is complying with the core function, which required preparing audit programme before conducting audit or investigation. Every financial year the unit managed to prepare four auditing program which make a total of twenty audit program available in five financial years consecutively since 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 and this was the continuous process. The unit assessed and appraised the
soundness and application of accounting financial and operational control. This measured through obtained unqualified report from external auditor and the council managed to obtained unqualified report in five consecutive financial year since 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 this was due to soundness internal control. Audit
works always are documented. Internal Audit Unit for every audit conducted required to prepare audit work performed make them available for reference, the council unit prepare four audit works in every financial year divided into quarterly bases. For this the council unit managed to prepare twelve audit works for three
consecutive financial years (2011/2012 to 2013/2014).
