The Internal Audit in the Municipalities in Portugal - State of the Art

Internal auditing in local authorities is still voluntary, while in other sectors such as health, which is mandatory. The size and the complexity of the entity are the most relevant factors for the voluntary creation of internal auditing. This study aims to evaluate the state of art of internal auditing at the municipalities in Portugal. The specific objective is to analyse how the internal audit is found in the municipalities, seeking to verify if there has been evolution over time, in order to evaluate if there is a greater number of municipalities with the internal audit service / office and those that still do not have, what causes them. The research methodology used was the data collection by a questionnaire, that was sent to the 308 municipalities through electronic mail. Through the results obtained, it can be affirmed that there is a greater number of municipalities participating in this type of research, that there is a slight increase of the number of municipalities which have the internal audit service / office and, moreover, the smaller municipalities are more sensitized to the importance of this theme. The main reason found for the lack of this service is the lack of human resources, however it is verified that some municipalities intend to implement this service in the near future.