Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to examine factors affecting internal audit
effectiveness of environmental protection authority-UNDP funded projects in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia. The design of the research was both descriptive and explanatory
type of research. There were thirteen projects being of the environmental protection
authority funded by UNDP of which six of the have been the focus of this study which
have audit department in their structure. Though the numbers of staffs in each project
vary, the entire population was used in this study which includes project managers,
internal auditors and other employees. Thus the study was a census study. Primary
data was utilized in this study and questionnaire was used as data collection tool. For
the statistical analysis purpose, SPSS was used as an analysis tool and both
descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviation and OLS regression
analysis were employed. Six variables have been identified as factors affecting the
internal audit effectiveness of environmental protection authority-UNDP funded
projects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings of the study has revealed that internal
audit quality and information technology have positive and statistically factors
affecting internal audit quality of the environmental protection authority of UNDP-
funded projects while management support has a negative association but statistically
significant factor affecting internal audit effectiveness of environmental protection
authority-funded projects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with R-Value of 74.9% and R-
square value of 56.1%. In addition, the analysis result has shown internal audit
independence, auditor proficiency and presence of approved audit charter have
positive association but were statistically insignificant factors affecting the internal
audit effectiveness of environmental protection authority-UNDP funded projects in
Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Hence, it is recommended that the project managers and other
concerned stake holders focus on improving internal audit quality, information
technology and management support that would affect the internal audit effectiveness
of environmental protection authority-UNDP funded projects in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
