The role of internal audit in evaluating the extent to which sustainability standards are applied to improve the quality of financial reports
A Master’s thesis submitted to the Board of the College of Administration and Economics- University of Karbala, which is part of the Requirements for Obtaining a Master’s Degree in Accounting sciences
from the student
Aneesa Qasim Hussein Al-Bakirat
Supervised by
Ass.Prof.Dr. Mushtaq Talib Abdulameer Al-Shammari
Abstract:
The research aims to determine the role of internal audit in evaluating sustainability standards through the tasks and responsibilities of internal auditors to evaluate the sustainability standards of the economic unit, internal systems, and the efficiency of sustainability initiatives for the purpose of improving the quality of financial reports.
To achieve this, the researcher relied on the theoretical side on the deductive approach, drawing on sources and previous studies in this field, while on the practical side she used the exploratory descriptive approach, relying on a questionnaire that includes a set of questions distributed to a sample of 230 auditors and accountants working in economic units listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange. The answers were collected and the results were then analyzed. 230 valid questionnaires were retrieved for analysis, the results of which were approved for the purposes of statistical analysis. Programs for descriptive and inferential analysis were used, including the weighted arithmetic mean, standard deviation, SPSS, Amos, and appropriate statistical methods in testing hypotheses.
Several conclusions were reached, including that internal auditing enhances the making of financial decisions related to investment in the economic unit for stakeholders, as the economic units place the environmental standard among their priorities, and this indicates a high level of awareness of the importance of this dimension in the continuation of their work in the future. The more the economic units pay attention to internal auditing, the more This was reflected positively and directly on the quality of financial reports in terms of the quality of accounting information, the quality of accounting profits, and the quality of accounting conservatism.
