Internal Control In Government Establishment

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

Auditing standards and guidelines (A.S & G) S. 204 define Internal Control as “the whole systems of control both financial and otherwise established by management in order to carry on the business of the enterprises in an orderly and efficient manner, ensure adherence to management policies, safe guard the assets and secure as far as possible the completeness and accuracy of the Records.  The individual components of an internal control systems are known as ‘controls’ or ‘internal control’.

The earliest known form of accounting is stewardship accounting and it has its origin far back in 45000 BC.  Great land owners would not manage their own land but would appoint persons called stewards to manage the land.  Essentially, stewardship accounting involves the orderly recording remained primitive until in recent times.

Indeed, the accounting concepts and procedures in use today for the accounting concept of transactions could be credited to the Italian merchants during the early part of the renaissance.  The main principles were set by Luca Pacioli in his famous treatise “Summa de Arithmetical, geometrical, proportion, et proporionalita”.  (Double entry Book Keeping) published in Venice 1494.

Stewardship Accounting gave way to Financial Accounting during the industrial revolution.