The influence of the audit committee on the internal audit operations in the system of corporate governance – evidence from Croatia

Figures & data

Table 1. The structure of examinees included in the sample.

A group of examinees	Count	Table N (%)
Internal auditor	34	52.3
Member of AC	31	47.7

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 2. The structure of economic activities of examinees included in the sample.

Type of economic activities	Total number of examinees		Number of examinees in the sample
			Internal auditor		Member of AC
	Count	Table N (%)	Count	Table N (%)	Count	Table N (%)
Mining and quarrying	1	1.6	1	2.9	0	0.0
Manufacturing	6	7.7	5	14.7	1	3.2
Gas production, energy and water	6	9.2	3	8.9	3	9,7
Building	3	4.6	1	2.9	2	6.5
Wholesale and retail	2	3.1	1	2.9	1	3.2
Transportation, warehousing and communications	13	20.0	5	14.7	8	25.8
Financial services	21	32.3	13	38.3	8	25.8
Other social and personal service activities	1	1.6	0	0.0	1	3.2
Other	12	18.4	5	14.7	7	22.6

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 3. The structure of the sample according to the number of employees.

Number of employees	Total number of examinees		Number of examinees in the sample
			Internal auditor		Member of AC
	Count	Table N	Count	Table N	Count	Table N
		(%)		(%)		(%)
Less than 50	4	6.2	1	1.5	3	4.6
51–200	5	7.7	3	4.6	2	3.1
201–500	13	20.0	7	10.8	6	9.2
More than 500	43	66.2	23	35.4	20	30.8

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 4. Structure of the sample according to the size of a company.

Size of a company	Total number of examinees		Number of examinees in the sample
			Internal auditor		Member of AC
	Count	Table N	Count	Table N	Count	Table N
		(%)		(%)		(%)
Large	59	90.8	30	46.2	29	44.6
Medium-sized	5	7.7	3	4.6	2	3.1
Small	1	1.5	1	1.5	0	.0

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 5. The mean of examinees on the influence of cooperation of the internal audit function and the audit committee on the increase in quality of the internal audit operations.

	Mean	Median	Mode	Standard deviation
INFLUENCE_ON_QUALITY_IA	3.65	4.00	4.00	.82

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 6. Examinees’ point of view and descriptive statistics on the influence of cooperation between the internal audit function and the audit committee in a company on the increase in quality of the internal audit operations.

Observation			Frequency	Percent
Internal auditor	Valid	2.00	4	11.8
		3.00	11	32.4
		4.00	16	47.1
		5.00	3	8.8
		Total	34	100.0
Member of AC	Valid	2.00	2	6.5
		3.00	8	25.8
		4.00	16	51.6
		5.00	5	16.1
		Total	31	100.0
Descriptive statistics	Mean	Median	Mode	Standard deviation
Internal auditor	3.53	4.00	4.00	.83
Member of AC	3.77	4.00	4.00	.80

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 7. T-test of difference between grades of internal auditors and members of the audit committee on the influence of cooperation between the internal audit function and the audit committee in a company on the increase in quality of the internal audit operations.

		Levene’s test for equality of variances		t-test for equality of means
		F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference
INFLUENCE_ON_QUALITY_IA	Equal variances assumed	.434	.513	−1.209	63	.231	−.24478

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 8. Descriptive statistics on the opinions about the quality of communication and interaction between the internal audit function and the audit committee.

Quality of communication		Frequency		Percent
1…No communication		2		3.1
2…Weak communication		10		15.4
3…Moderate communication		14		21.5
4…Very good communication		22		33.8
5…Excellent communication		17		26.2
Total		65		100.0
Descriptive statistics	Mean	Median	Mode	Standard deviation
Quality of communication	3.65	4.00	4.00	1.12

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 9. The opinion of the examinees and descriptive statistics on the quality of communication and interaction of the internal audit function and the audit committee by the groups of examinees.

			Frequency	Percent
Internal auditor	Mark	1	1	2.9
		2	5	14.7
		3	8	23.5
		4	11	32.4
		5	9	26.5
		Total	34	100.0
Member of AC	Mark	1	1	3.2
		2	5	16.1
		3	6	19.4
		4	11	35.5
		5	8	25.8
		Total	31	100.0
Descriptive statistics	Mean	Median	Mode	Standard deviation
Internal auditor	3.65	4.00	4.00	1.12
Member of AC	3.65	4.00	4.00	1.14

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 10. Spearman’s coefficient of correlation.

			Communication	INFLUENCE_ON QUALITY_IA
Spearman’s rho	COMMUNICATION BETWEEN IA_ AC	Correlation coefficient	1.000	0.388^**
		Sig. (1-tailed)		0.001
		N	65	65
	INFLUENCE_ON QUALITY_IA	Correlation coefficient	0.388^**	1.000
		Sig. (1-tailed)	0.001	.
		N	65	65

^** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 11. Spearman’s coefficient of correlation according to groups of examinees.

Observation				Communication
Spearman’s rho	Internal auditor	INFLUENCE_ON QUALITY_IA	Correlation coefficient	0.393^*
			Sig. (1-tailed)	0.011
			N	34
	Member of AC	INFLUENCE_ON QUALITY_IA	Correlation coefficient	0.401^*
			Sig. (1-tailed)	0.013
			N	31

^* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed).

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 12. Opinion of examinees on the influence of cooperation between the internal audit function and the audit committee in increasing quality of the internal audit operations regarding the delivery of the risk assessment and related internal audit plan.

		Influence_on_quality_IA
		Count	Mean
Total	Always	45	3.64
	Sometimes	7	3.29
	Never	12	3.92
Internal auditor	Always	26	3.54
	Sometimes	4	3.25
	Never	4	3.75
Member of AC	Always	19	3.79
	Sometimes	3	3.33
	Never	8	4.00

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 13. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) – influence on the quality of the internal audit operations.

INFLUENCE_ON_QUALITY_IA		Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
TOTAL	Between groups	1.781	2	0.891	1.336	0.270
	Within groups	40.656	61	0.666
	Total	42.438	63
Internal auditor	Between groups	0.509	2	0.255	0.359	0.701
	Within groups	21.962	31	0.708
	Total	22.471	33
Member of AC	Between groups	0.975	2	0.488	0.739	0.487
	Within groups	17.825	27	0.660
	Total	18.800	29

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 14. The opinion of examinees on the influence of cooperation between the internal audit function and the audit committee on the increase in the quality of the internal audit operations regarding the use of information obtained from the audit committee.

		INFLUENCE_ON_QUALITY_IA
		Count		Mean
INFORMATION_AC	Always	39		3.69
	Sometimes	17		3.47
	Never	6		3.50
Analysis of variance (ANOVA)	Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Between groups	.667	2	.333	.491	.614
Within groups	40.043	59	.679
Total	40.710	61

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 15. Opinion of examinees on the influence of cooperation between the internal audit function and the audit committee in increasing the quality of the internal audit operations regarding communication on auditing resources.

RESOURCES_IA		INFLUENCE_ON_QUALITY_IA
		Count	Mean
Total	Always	22	3.95
	Sometimes	26	3.69
	Never	14	3.07
Internal auditor	Always	12	3.58
	Sometimes	15	3.67
	Never	5	3.00
Member of RO	Always	10	4.40
	Sometimes	11	3.73
	Never	9	3.11

Source: Author’s calculations.

Table 16. Analysis of variance (ANOVA).

INFLUENCE_ ON_ QUALITY_IA		Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Sig.
Internal auditor	Between groups	1.719	2	0.859	1.231	0.307
	Within groups	20.250	29	0.698
	Total	21.969	31
Member of AC	Between groups	7.896	2	3.948	9.293	0.001
	Within groups	11.471	27	0.425
	Total	19.367	29

Source: Author’s calculations.