Obstacles to the professionalization of internal audit in the public sector: Case of four Moroccan public entities

Abstract

The internal audit function is invited to be more “professional” than ever so that it can effectively contribute to the performance of the public sector faced with increasingly complex challenges. Based on a survey of four Moroccan public organizations, this paper aims to identify the obstacles to the professionalization of internal audit in the public sector. On the ontological level, far from verifying hypotheses drawn from theories or fundamental research, we defend the idea that the reality to be observed remains unknowable in its essence and we adopt the principle of representability or the experience of reality. The results reveal that the audit suffers from problems due in particular to the weak weight of the function, to a lack of qualification of the auditors, to the environment of the function and to internal audit practices in general.

In short, the purpose of the observation was to better understand the reality of internal auditing in the public sector and is in no way part of a statistical generalization perspective. The knowledge produced is local, contingent and limited to the context of the study. The scientific character would be more a function of compliance with a strict, honest and rigorous investigation procedure than the reproducibility of its results.

Keywords: internal audit, public sector, Performance, Professionalization, Obstacles.

JEL Classification : M 42, H83

Paper type: Empirical research