The Internal Control Policies in Second Cycle Institutions

Abstract

The rationale of this study i s to assess the internal controlsin second cycle institutions. The study was conducted in ten second cycle institutions in the Eastern Region in Ghana. The purposive sampling method was used to attainthe sample size by concentrating on the various unit s of the selected Institutions for the study. This enabled the re searcher to highlight differences between respondents in a population which ensured different view s obtained on the subject matter. The st udy f oll owed s urvey de sign in its c ond uct by u sing pre-c oded q ue sti onnaire s t o elicit data from re sp ondents. Interviews were also conducted on some selected senior staff to add more understanding to the data collected using the questionnaires. The s urvey de sign wa s ad opted t o enable the generalizati on of findings. This has the p otential of wide applicati on of re search findings in the ed ucati on and other related sect or s in Ghana. The research de sign used was descriptive research. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed by u sing the Statistical Package for the Social Science(SPSS).The results of the analy si s show that internal controls exist in Second Cycle Institutions, these controls ought to be effective and efficient but, due to emphaty among other challenges, they are not. The controls are consistent with COSO, internal control framework. It is the recommendation of the researcher that policy makers must show the commitment of enhancing internal controls to achieve their purpose, sanction those who override the internal controls for their personal gains. Employees need to be aware of the importance of internal controls and this can be achieved through training.