Internal Control Practices and Financial Management of Local Governments: A Quantitative Framework Approach

A properly developed internal control system is expected to expose how comprehensive the government handles its finances and how well they make use of its resources. This study examined how effective internal control is in the local government in relation to how well finances are managed. Internal control faces some challenges such as poor accountability where the day to day transactions are not accounted for and also ineffective measures put in place to apprehend offenders who tamper with the finances amongst others are some of the problems associated with internal control practice. The methodology of the study is based on survey research approach. The statistical data used for the study were obtained by distribution of Two Hundred (200) questionnaire among employees, in the five (5) local governments considered in this study. These respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique and the data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed using regression analysis. The result of the analysis shows that internal control has significant relationship with budget control with p-value = (0.000 less than 0.05). Based on this result, the study recommends that local government management should develop more effective strategies that will ensure that internal control is effective and efficient so that budgets can be managed properly.