The influence of the monitoring & evaluation report on project external audit plan: a case of international development association funded projects in Mombasa county, Kenya

Abstract

The concepts of monitoring and evaluation and project audit are closely related in the context of assessing effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of a project. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of the monitoring and evaluation report on project’s external audit plan with a case study of World Bank funded projects in the County of Mombasa, Kenya. The study was based on three research objectives: establish the extent to which purpose of monitoring and evaluation influence project external audit plan, assess the effects of monitoring and evaluation report findings on project external audit plan and determine the extent to which M&E report recommendations influence project external audit plan. The research design was survey. The study targeted 44 auditors working for Office of the Auditor General, Mombasa County. Questionnaires were main instruments of data collection. Data was analyzed descriptively using both SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Multivariate regression analysis was used whose result showed that there is a strong correlation between the dependent and the independent variables as shown by the values of R2 (0.771). The R2 value (77.10%) indicates how much of the dependent variable, project external audit plan is explained by the independent variables; report purpose, report findings, and report recommendations. The findings agree with Mackay (1999) who urge that evaluation findings can be an important input for resource allocation planning, decision making and prioritization. The study recommends that the terms of reference for a monitoring and evaluation assignment should ensure that the report captures the interests of wide stakeholder including the project auditors. In addition, audit firms and auditors should get trained on monitoring and evaluation to enable them to interpret the report findings. The study also recommends that monitoring and evaluation findings on accountability and project impact should be based on fact and evidence. Lastly, study recommends that monitoring and evaluation report should have appropriate recommendations based on the findings. The researcher recommends further study on the similarities between monitoring and evaluation and project external audit which was not part of this study.