the statements that management establishes with, board oversight, structures, reporting lines and appropriate authorities and responsibilities in the pursuit of objectives and human resource function has helped to define competence and staffing levels by job roles, facilitating training and development both had same mean score of 4.69 (SD =0.60). It must be emphasised that all the items reported under the control environment had mean scores more than 3.50. This means that the majority of the respondents were of the view that the control environment component of the internal control systems is effective. The overall control environment score was 4.66 (SD = 0.62). Overall, the results indicated that the majority of the respondents agreed that the control environment component of banks is effective in the Ghanaian banking industry. The effectiveness of the control environments was evident in the top managements support for integrity and ethical values; the establishment of codified standards of conduct to guide behaviour, activities and decisions; holding individuals accountable for their internal control responsibilities in the pursuit of objectives. The attitude of the board and senior management determines the level of internal control effectiveness in an organisaton. If top management believes that control is important, others in the organisation will sense that and respond by observing the established controls. Similarly, establishing support for the integrity and ethical values are essential elements of the control environment as they
affect the design, administration and monitoring of other internal control components (Arens & Loebbecke, 1997). The results demonstrated that management of the banks have shown strong commitment in promoting internal control environments that is strong enough to receive the support of top management, establish standards and responsibilities, as well as hold people accountable for their successes and failures. The cornerstone of a strong and effective internal control structure is the control environment. Hence, the existing effectiveness of the control environment suggests that the internal control system is very effective in establishing strong internal control structures necessary for preventing material frauds in the banks (Apostolou & Jeffords, 1990). This result is consistent with an inter industry comparative study of internal controls conducted in the USA in 2012, where banking effectiveness for control environment was rated high with mean of over 5.0 on a seven point likert scale (Hermanson, Smith, & Stephens, 2012).
The evaluation of the effectiveness of monitoring activities as component of the internal control systems of the banks in preventing material fraud are presented in Table 2. The results showed that the mean scores for all the items were more than 4.00 and ranges from 4.52 (SD = 0.63) to 4.90 (SD = 0.31). The existence of independent internal audit unit that objectively evaluates the entity s control system and feedback to management on the functioning of the internal control reported the
highest mean score (M = 4.90; SD = 0.31). Management periodically engages external evaluators to objectively evaluate the control system and report to management on the functioning of other components of the control system had the second highest mean of (M = 4.83; SD = 0.47). There is also evidence that management tracts whether deficiencies are remediated on a timely manner (M = 4.76; SD = 0.44). The mean score for the monitoring activities was 4.72 (SD = 0.49). A control system has to be monitored to ensure that it operates effectively. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were of the view that the existing monitoring activities of the internal control systems were effective in Ghanaian banks. The results indicated that the existing monitoring activities of the banks are focused on independent internal audit unit that objectively evaluates the banks control system; periodically engages external evaluators to objectively evaluate the control system; and managements ability to track whether deficiencies are remediated on a timely manner. It can be inferred that the banks have adopted aggressive mechanisms for assessing the quality of the internal control system's performance over time, which includes ongoing monitoring activities, separate evaluations or a combination of the two (INTOSAI, 2004). 5. Conclusions and recommendations
This study has contributed to advance the knowledge of internal control effectiveness in the banking industry in Africa. To regulators and
practitioners, the research has brought to bear the perceived strength of internal controls in the Ghanaian banking industry using the 1992 COSO framework. Internal and external auditors can pay detailed attention to the risk assessment, control activities, and information and communication components of the internal control system of banks in Ghana, without losing sight of the control environment and monitoring activities either. The study has added to the little research on internal control effectiveness of the banking sector in Ghana, and we hope that other researches will leverage on this study and extend further the effectiveness of internal controls of banking organizations in Africa.
The study results indicate that, strong controls exist in the control environment and monitoring activities components of the internal control systems of banks in Ghana. The two components were highly rated by respondents with average means of 4.72 and 4.66 respectively. The study particularly revealed a very strong tone at the top, indicating the board of directors commitment to integrity and ethical values. This is in the right direction in curbing what Roger Steare called a \deficit in ethical values\
译文
银行内部控制研究
James C
1引言
一个有效的内部控制系统是每个组织的神经中枢，也是导致组织崩溃失败的关键性因素。一个组织的内部控制是组织的治理体系和管理风险能力的一个至关重要的方面。它可以确保实现组织的目标，以及建立、加强并保护利益相关者的利益。(IFAC,2012)。引发当前全球金融危机，其很大的原因就是美国安然和世通，欧洲的帕玛拉特等知名企业的破产，以及世界各地其他国家的企业破产案件(阿姆朵和伊那喀，2009)。失败的内部控制制度和内部控制系统会最终导致整个企业的崩溃，但是公司高管都在规避这些公司丑闻。因此，组织必须确保他们的内部控制系统符合当今的商业模式。 2理论和相关文献 内部控制系统的定义
1992年COSO将内部控制定义为一个过程，理当如此，因为一个内部控制系统本身并不是目标，而是达到目的的一种手段。内部控制的定义为“由一个实体的董事会、管理层和其他人员设计提供的合理地保证目标实现的一个过程。主要内在属性包括以下几个方面:操作的有效性和效率、财务报告的可靠性、遵守适用的法律和法规 (COSO，内部控制整合框架，1992)。再次，巴塞尔银行监管委员会对内部控制的定义为： 它是一个过程，会影响到董事会、高级管理层和各级人员的决策和日常工作活活动。它不只是一个在某个时间点上执行的过程或政策，也是包含在银行运作过程的始终（巴塞尔，1998）。(完整译文请到百度文库)