THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERNAL AUDIT IN FRAUD DETECTION IN ZIMBABWEAN CEMENT MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the impact of internal auditing on fraud detection in the cement manufacturing industry of Zimbabwe. Epistemology was adopted as the philosophical basis of the study, and a pragmatism research paradigm was employed. The study used a convergent parallel research design and a quantitative research approach, with questionnaires used for data collection. The study's target population was 5,000 staff and employees from three major cement manufacturers in Zimbabwe, and a research sample of 357 was obtained using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table. Simple random and purposive sampling methods were used to collect data through questionnaires and interviews.

The study found that management audits were the most commonly used type of internal audit in the studied cement manufacturing firms. However, the effectiveness of the audits was poor in most aspects, including accomplishing objectives, enhancing organizational effectiveness, preventing errors and unforeseen problems, risk management, and identifying the basic objective of internal auditing. The study also found that internal auditing in the studied firms fails to deal with major forms of fraud, including skimming payments from customers, check tampering, cash theft, misuse of company credit