External Auditors’ Reliance on the Internal Auditors in Sudanese Banks

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of Sudanese external auditors responsible for bank’s audits by studying the factors affecting their reliance degree on the work of internal auditors. The paper also investigates variation of judgment between private external auditors and public sector auditors. A sample of 46 external auditors from private audit firms and the General Auditor’s Chamber is employed to examine their perceptions regarding three factors (objectiv- ity, competence and work performance) that may affect their reliance degree on the work performed by internal auditors. For the purpose of analysis t-test and ANOVA were conducted to analyze the data. The results indicated that external auditors responsible for bank’s audits consider ob- jectivity, competence and work performance of internal auditors as important factors affecting their reliance degree. The results revealed that work performance had the highest mean score followed by objectivity and competence. It is found that there were no variations between private and public sector external auditors in their reliance degree on the work of internal auditors. The results of this paper will be of concerns to internal audit departments in Sudanese banks to develop their relationship with external auditors.