State of internal control in Lithuanian enterprises

Vidaus kontrolės sistema - tai vadovybės vykdomais veiksmais apibrėųtas procesas, skirtas verslo politikai užtikrinti bei numatytiems tikslams įmonėje pasiekti. Gera ąmonžs vidaus kontrolės sistema - vienas iš efektyvios tos įmonės veiklos garantų. Tokio pobūdžio kontrolė padeda užtikrinti produktyvią ūkinę veiklą; garantuoti įstatymų, poįstatyminių aktų bei įmonės priimtų taisyklių laikymąsi; įdiegti tinkamus įmonės turto apsaugos metodus; išvengti klaidų bei atskleisti piktnaudžiavimus ir kt. Norint įmonėse diegti vidaus kontrolės sistemą, padedanďią pasiekti įmonei užsibrėžtus tikslus, būtina ištirti šios sistemos būkle. Straipsnyje pateikiama Lietuvos įmonių vidaus kontrolės sistemos tyrimas. Įmonių vidaus kontrolės būklė tirta 2001 m. ir 2007 m. - taip siekta įvertinti vidaus kontrolės pokyčius imonėse. Darbe akcentuojamos labai mažų, mažų ir vidutinių įmonių vidaus kontrolės ypatybės. Tokio pobūdžio tyrimas Lietuvoje atliktas pirmą kartą.It is vital to investigate the state of the Internal Control System (ICS), which helps the enterprise to achieve its goals, before starting to introduce the system in the companies. This article deals with the survey of the ICS in Lithuanian companies. In this paper the emphasis is put on the peculiarities of the ICS in small, medium and large enterprises. A research of this kind is carried out in Lithuania for the first time. When an enterprise is willing to achieve the best possible business results, it seeks to employ all potential resources. One of them is the development of the Internal Control System, which helps to achieve the goals set forth by the company. After the restitution of Lithuanian independence, most of the heads of Lithuanian enterprises considered the Internal Control (IC) to be a vestige of a socialist society and thus gave inadequate regard to it. In this situation the property of most state-owned enterprises was squandered or even plundered. In private enterprises, only after revealing the plunders and abuse, the heads of the companies would acknowledge that the activities had been controlled insufficiently. Such realities made people slowly and painfully grasp the importance of the Internal Control. Nowadays much attention is paid to the issue of Internal Control and Internal Audit, but introduction of the Internal Control in the companies is still a fraught thing. Object of the research - the state of the Internal Control in Lithuanian enterprises. The results of the empiric investigation (taken in 2001 and 2007) of the availability of the internal control in the Lithuanian enterprises are presented. Survey sample - public and private companies and individual enterprises in Kaunas. Usually in statistic investigation the data related to the survey sample are obtained through sampling method. For this purpose the selected sample is defined as the part of the survey sample selected for the investigation which can represent the survey sample in the right and sufficient way and produce the required information. The elements of the survey sample were selected by using the probability sampling. The method of collecting initial data. In order to ensure the highest possible secrecy of the respondents and a higher reliability of the data the method of questionnaires was chosen. This paper looks into the Internal Control in Lithuanian enterprises. The control measures applied in medium and small enterprises were compared. It is shown that in the year 2001 those not only small and middle companies haven't installed sufficient system of the internal control. Also the changes of internal control up to the year 2007 are shown. Companies have only a set of some control procedures, but the system of the internal control isn't formed yet