UKZN employees' perceptions of internal auditors.

Master of Business Administration. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville 2015.The introduction of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) Act of 1999 in 2000, made the internal audit functions an integral part of financial management in the public sector, with a focus on good governance and accountability. Since inception of Internal Audit Functions there have been varying perceptions and views on Internal Auditing by stakeholders in various financial and management sectors in organizations. Despite the above assertions, internal auditors in the South African sector may be falling short - thereby failing to fully meet the expectations of their stakeholders - and create an expectation gap. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the Perceptions of employees on Internal Auditing at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). This was a cross – sectional study conducted among 56 employees of the UKZN. The results of this show that majority of the responses perceived internal audit as a value adding business partners (91%), the responses indicate that above 74% do not perceive internal auditors as watchdogs in the organisations. The responses also indicate that 84% pointed out that the internal audit unit provides value able advice to other department within the organisation. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that the employees or so called internal audit customers perceive the internal audit activity to add value to its operational functions and perceive internal auditors as business partners