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文献出处：James C. The Study on bank Internal Control[J]. Journal of Banking & Finance, 2017, 2(2): 377-386. 原文
The Study on bank Internal Control
James C
1. Introduction
An effective internal control system is the nerve centre of every organization, the breakdown of which leads to the failure of organizations. Internal control is a crucial aspect of an organization s governance system and ability to manage risk. It ensures the achievement of organizations objectives and creating, enhancing, and protecting stakeholder value (IFAC, 2012). Precipitating the current global financial crises is the high profile corporate failures such as Enron and WorldCom in the USA, Parmalat in Europe, and similar cases of corporate collapse around the world (Amudo & Inanga, 2009). Failure of internal control systems and the eventual circumvention of internal controls by company executives accounted for these corporate scandals. Organisations must ensure that their internal control systems remain relevant in today s business model. 2. Theory and related literature Definition of internal control system
COSO in 1992, defined internal controls as a process, and rightly so because an internal control system is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Internal control is defined as a “process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following categories: Effectiveness and efficiency of operations, Reliability of financial reporting, Compliance with applicable laws and regulations” (COSO, Internal Control-Integrated Framework, 1992). Again the Basel committee on banking supervision defined internal controls “as a process effected by board of directors, senior management and all levels of personnel. It is not solely a procedure or policy that is performed at a certain point in time, but rather it is continually operating at all levels within the bank” (Basel, 1998). Internal control systems effectiveness
The effectiveness of an internal control system is dependent on how fluid the system interact with itself and how embedded it is into the organizations business processes. Again for an internal control system to be effective and provide that needed assurance to the board, there should be some “agents of effectiveness”. These are a vibrant board, which does not wait to be informed but a board that understands the business and questions the status quo, and an effective, independent internal audit unit. Internal control is a process, but its effectiveness is a state or a condition
at point of the process. Therefore it is important for management and the board to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the internal control system periodically.
According to COSO, an internal control system can be judged to effective on the high level if the board of directors and management have reasonable assurance that: 1. they understand the extent to which the entity s operations objectives are being achieved, 2. published financial statements are being prepared reliably, and 3. applicable laws and regulations are being complied with (COSO, Internal Control-Integrated Framework, 1992). An internal control framework that places too much emphasis on detailed explanation of the different components of the system and methods for their design but ignore details on how each of the components can be measured to assess their effectiveness is a deficient control system in itself (Amudo & Inanga, 2009).
The effectiveness of an internal control system is a function of the workings of the five components of the system. Consequently, assessing effectiveness of internal controls must be done in relation to the components of internal control. Judging whether an internal control system of an organization is effective or not is a subjective verdict resulting from the assessment of the workings of the five components of internal control system across the entire organization (COSO, Internal Control -Integrated Framework, 2011).
In assessing internal control effectiveness, the evaluator must understand the operations of the five components, the intent of the principles and assumptions underlying the operations of the control components and how they are applied across the organization. The researchers in assessing the effectiveness of the internal control system of Ghanaian banks, adopts COSOs 1992 principles and assumptions of assessing the effectiveness of internal control systems. 3. Methodology
Data for the study was gathered from questionnaires administered to managers (including audit managers) of all banks in Ghana. A total of 56 questionnaires were sent out and 30 were received representing response rate of about 54 percent. The questionnaire was divided in to two main sections representing the two control components (control environment and monitoring) of the COSO model chosen for the study. The study targeted managers because, the questions required a good understanding of the internal control system of banks.Responses received from respondents were based on a five (5) point likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, where 1 represented strongly disagree (SD) and 5 represented strongly agree (SA) . The likert scale was used to measure respondent s knowledge and perception of internal controls and the bank s internal control system effectiveness. A likert scale was used because it is easy to read and complete by participants.Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data and presented in the form of means and standard deviations for each question and each category or section of the questionnaire. Cronbach s alpha was also computed to test internal consistency for each section of the questionnaire. The Cronbanch s alpha for control environment and monitoring are as follows; 0.823 and 0.720 respectively. A Cronbach s alpha of 0.7 is generally accepted, however other researchers consider a 0.6 and above reliability adequate enough (Field, 2000).
The rationale for the choice of the two control components is basically; to manage the scope of the research and again we believe that gaining an understanding of the control environment component and the monitoring activities component of the internal control system will give an indication of the general effectiveness of the whole system. 4. Results and discussions
The study sought to assess the effectiveness of the control environment in Ghanaian banks as shown in Table 1. The results showed that the statement that top managements support for integrity and ethical values and codified standards of conduct to guide behaviour, activities and decisions both had the highest mean (M = 4.83). This was followed by organisations hold individuals accountable for their internal control responsibilities in the pursuit of objectives (M = 4.76; SD = 0.64); which reported the second highest score. It was further evident that