Investigating factors influencing the performance of the Office of the Auditor General in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The Office of the Auditor General’s (the OAG’s) primary mandate is to audit and ensure the best practices of financial management among public sector entities. However, despite this mandate being driven by the national constitution, significant deviations from the international best practices have been seen to be rife within the OAG. This study, therefore, sought, to determine the socio-factors that impact on the audit performance of the Office of the Auditor General. To help achieve this objective, a quantitative method approach was adopted. The population for the study comprised 16 senior management members of the OAG, 36 audit team leaders for each of the 36 Government Ministries, as well as the 25 Parliamentary Audit Committee (PAC) members. Convenient sampling was used. The results of the study provided invaluable insights into how the OAG can improve its effectiveness in achieving its mandate. Inadequate working tools, bureaucratic systems, statutes and legislation emerged as the most significant factors affecting the performance of the OAG. Regarding the economic factors, poor financing of auditing operations and poor staff remuneration were the most dominant ones. Overall, non-economic factors superseded the economic factors in influencing the performance of the audit office. Since the auditor was identified as a key player in this study, the researcher recommended that the welfare of the auditor be taken seriously in order to ostensibly address issues such as low staff morale, lack of motivation and poor remuneration. As a long-term solution, it is recommended that the Office of the Auditor General be commercialised so as to ideally address inadequate resource problems.