Internal Audit and Cash Management in Non-Governmental Organizations: A Case of Compassion International Rwanda

ABSTRACT The study was about the relationship between internal audit and cash management in NGOs a case of Compassion International Rwanda. Cash management is the one of important areas that a project should focus on, if it has to achieve its goals and objectives. In the problem statement, it was found out that Compassion International Rwanda Office assists 196 projects and some of them are faced with difficulties in meeting required professional standards in cash management. They have poor performance. Consequently some of them are suspended or completely closed. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to find out how internal audit should be carried out to impact positively the cash management in order to improve the project performance. In this study, the research design used was descriptive survey and cross sectional register with correlational design target population was the staff of projects located in Northern Province plus sta!T from head office who are involved in Compassion Project cash management. The sample size was been 86 employees. Purposive sampling method was been applied whereby questionnaire and unstructured interviews were used to collect data from the selected persons. The study concluded that internal audit plays a vital role in the prevention of errors and frauds as it instigates internal control measures and internal checks to be followed in a project so that errors and frauds can be mitigated. Internal audit has an impact on effective cash management in NonGovernmental Organizations. The researcher recommends that to overcome the constraints facing by the internal auditors, the purchases policies, cash disbursement procedures and accounting system must be in written document manual, be uniform and be available for all projects. The results from internal audit should be trusted and respected and their recommendations have to be implemented without delay. The internal auditors should organize professional courses related to cash management for Compassion projects managers. And, the accounting operations have to be computerized.