Factors Affecting Internal Audit Efficiency of Local Government Organizations in the Southern Gulf Coast Provinces of Thailand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55164/ecbajournal.v18i3.286251Keywords:
Internal Audit Efficiency, Local Government Organizations, Risk-Based Auditing, Independence, Organizational StructureAbstract
This research aimed to investigate the influence of five factors—namely, knowledge and competence, professional ethics, risk control and assessment, independence, and organizational structure—on the internal audit efficiency of local government organizations within the Southern Gulf of Thailand provincial cluster. Data were collected using questionnaires validated for content validity (IOC: 0.67–1.00) and reliability (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.71–0.91). The sample consisted of 262 internal auditors affiliated with 617 local government organizations across five provinces. The collected data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.
The findings revealed that all five factors collectively explained 72.1 percent of the variance in internal audit efficiency (Adjusted R² = 0.721, F = 136.105, p < 0.001) at the 0.05 significant level. Independence emerged as the strongest predictor (β = 0.346, p < 0.001), followed by organizational structure (β = 0.333, p < 0.001) and skills (β = 0.172, p < 0.001). Professional ethics ranked fourth in predictive weight (β = 0.159, p < 0.01), despite recording the highest mean score at the "strongly agree" level ( = 4.74). Risk control and assessment (β = 0.135, p < 0.05), reflected the characteristics of a hygiene factor in according to Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory. Furthermore, the results indicate that these local government organizations continue to heavily prioritize compliance auditing over risk-based auditing aligned with international standards.
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