Course Introduction
The Public Sector Internal Audit and Governance Training Course provides a comprehensive and practical framework for strengthening internal audit, governance, accountability, risk management, internal controls, and assurance within government institutions and public sector organizations. The program examines how internal audit can support responsible stewardship of public resources while maintaining independence, objectivity, professional skepticism, and a clear focus on public value.
The course explores the distinctive operating environment of public sector organizations, including statutory mandates, public accountability, legislative oversight, budgetary requirements, procurement obligations, service delivery expectations, regulatory frameworks, and heightened stakeholder scrutiny. Participants will learn how these factors influence internal audit planning, risk assessment, control evaluation, audit execution, reporting, governance, and follow-up activities.
Participants will develop practical skills for assessing governance arrangements, internal control systems, financial management processes, operational performance, compliance, risk management, procurement, revenue, expenditure, asset management, information systems, and public service delivery. The program emphasizes risk-based auditing techniques that help internal auditors identify significant exposures, evaluate control effectiveness, investigate root causes, and provide recommendations that support sustainable improvements.
The training also addresses the relationship between internal audit, audit committees, accounting officers, boards, senior management, risk functions, compliance teams, external auditors, oversight bodies, regulators, and other assurance providers. Participants will learn how to clarify responsibilities, communicate audit insights effectively, manage stakeholder expectations, coordinate assurance activities, and strengthen governance without assuming management responsibilities.
Modern public sector institutions face increasingly complex challenges involving digital government, cybersecurity, data privacy, artificial intelligence, fraud, corruption risks, third-party service delivery, climate and environmental pressures, fiscal constraints, operational resilience, and rapidly changing citizen expectations. The course incorporates these emerging issues and examines how internal audit functions can adapt their methodologies and assurance priorities to address evolving public sector risks.
By completing the program, participants will be better prepared to design risk-based public sector audit plans, evaluate governance and controls, assess compliance and performance, communicate significant findings, support accountability, and provide meaningful assurance to senior management and oversight bodies. The course is designed to strengthen the professionalism, relevance, independence, and strategic contribution of internal audit within public institutions and public service environments.
Duration
10 days
Who Should Attend
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Chief audit executives and heads of internal audit functions within ministries, departments, agencies, authorities, and public institutions.
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Internal audit directors, managers, supervisors, and senior auditors responsible for public sector assurance assignments.
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Public sector internal auditors seeking advanced skills in governance, risk management, controls, compliance, and performance auditing.
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Audit committee members and governance professionals responsible for oversight of public sector internal audit and accountability arrangements.
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Accounting officers, finance directors, and senior public financial management professionals seeking stronger understanding of internal audit and governance.
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Risk management professionals responsible for identifying, assessing, monitoring, and reporting public sector risks.
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Compliance and regulatory professionals working within government institutions and public sector organizations.
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Public sector finance, procurement, operations, and program management professionals responsible for effective stewardship of public resources.
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External audit liaison professionals coordinating internal audit, external audit, legislative oversight, and other assurance activities.
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Anti-fraud, ethics, integrity, and investigations professionals dealing with public sector fraud and misconduct risks.
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Information technology and cybersecurity professionals supporting technology assurance within public institutions.
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Monitoring and evaluation professionals involved in assessing program performance, service delivery, efficiency, effectiveness, and outcomes.
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Governance, policy, and institutional performance professionals seeking stronger understanding of assurance and accountability mechanisms.
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Professionals preparing for leadership roles in public sector audit, governance, risk, compliance, financial management, or assurance.
Course Objectives
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Develop comprehensive knowledge of public sector internal audit principles and apply risk-based assurance approaches appropriate to government institutions and public organizations.
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Understand public sector governance structures, accountability relationships, statutory responsibilities, oversight mechanisms, and their implications for internal audit effectiveness.
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Evaluate governance frameworks, internal controls, risk management processes, financial management arrangements, and operational systems within public sector environments.
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Develop risk-based internal audit plans that align assurance activities with institutional mandates, strategic priorities, public service objectives, and significant organizational risks.
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Apply effective audit techniques for assessing public expenditure, revenue, procurement, assets, projects, programs, service delivery, compliance, and operational performance.
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Strengthen professional skepticism and analytical skills for identifying control weaknesses, inefficiencies, irregularities, fraud indicators, compliance issues, and emerging public sector risks.
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Evaluate the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls while considering legislative requirements, policies, procedures, accountability structures, and public resource constraints.
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Apply practical approaches for auditing public sector performance, including economy, efficiency, effectiveness, value for money, service quality, and achievement of program objectives.
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Strengthen audit reporting and communication skills for presenting significant findings, root causes, risks, recommendations, and management actions to senior officials and governance bodies.
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Understand the appropriate relationship between internal audit, management, audit committees, external auditors, regulators, oversight institutions, and other assurance providers.
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Apply technology, data analytics, continuous auditing, cybersecurity assurance, and emerging digital techniques to strengthen public sector internal audit coverage and effectiveness.
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Develop a sustainable public sector internal audit and governance framework that promotes accountability, transparency, risk management, control improvement, responsible resource use, and public value.
Comprehensive Course Outline
Module 1: Foundations of Public Sector Internal Audit
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Understanding the purpose, role, mandate, principles, objectives, and distinctive characteristics of internal audit within public sector institutions.
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Examining differences between public sector and private sector assurance environments, including accountability, statutory mandates, public resources, political oversight, and service delivery obligations.
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Understanding internal audit independence, objectivity, professional skepticism, confidentiality, ethical conduct, competence, and appropriate organizational positioning.
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Examining how internal audit contributes to governance, risk management, internal control, accountability, transparency, performance improvement, and responsible stewardship of public resources.
Module 2: Public Sector Governance and Accountability
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Understanding governance structures involving legislatures, boards, oversight committees, accounting officers, senior management, audit committees, regulators, and other accountability bodies.
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Evaluating governance principles covering transparency, accountability, integrity, ethical leadership, oversight, decision-making, responsibility, and public interest.
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Assessing governance arrangements and identifying weaknesses in authority, accountability, reporting lines, decision rights, oversight, and institutional performance.
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Understanding the role of internal audit in supporting governance while maintaining appropriate boundaries between assurance, advisory activities, and management responsibilities.
Module 3: Public Sector Risk Management
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Identifying strategic, financial, operational, compliance, program, service delivery, technology, fraud, reputational, and institutional risks within public sector organizations.
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Applying structured risk assessment techniques to prioritize public sector risks according to likelihood, impact, control effectiveness, public interest, and organizational objectives.
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Evaluating risk management frameworks, risk ownership, risk appetite, risk registers, risk monitoring, escalation, and management responses.
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Integrating risk assessment with internal audit planning to ensure assurance resources are directed toward significant risks affecting public resources and service outcomes.
Module 4: Internal Control Systems in Public Institutions
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Understanding control environments, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, monitoring, accountability, and other components of effective public sector internal control.
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Assessing preventive, detective, corrective, manual, automated, financial, operational, compliance, and technology-enabled controls across public sector processes.
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Evaluating control design and operating effectiveness while considering legislation, policies, procedures, resource limitations, organizational complexity, and service delivery requirements.
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Identifying control deficiencies, assessing their significance, determining root causes, and developing practical recommendations that support sustainable control improvement.
Module 5: Risk-Based Public Sector Internal Audit Planning
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Developing audit universes covering ministries, departments, agencies, programs, projects, processes, systems, contracts, funds, and significant public sector activities.
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Applying risk-based prioritization to determine audit coverage according to strategic objectives, public resource exposure, control weaknesses, stakeholder concerns, and emerging risks.
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Developing annual and strategic internal audit plans that balance financial, compliance, operational, performance, technology, governance, and risk-based assurance requirements.
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Establishing mechanisms for dynamic audit planning that respond to major incidents, emerging risks, regulatory changes, significant projects, organizational restructuring, and changing public sector priorities.
Module 6: Public Financial Management and Financial Auditing
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Auditing budgeting, expenditure management, revenue collection, cash management, financial reporting, commitments, payments, reconciliations, and financial controls.
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Assessing controls over public funds and identifying risks involving unauthorized expenditure, irregular payments, weak reconciliations, budget overruns, and inappropriate resource utilization.
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Evaluating financial management processes against applicable legislation, policies, approved budgets, delegated authorities, accounting requirements, and institutional procedures.
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Coordinating internal audit financial assurance with external audit and other assurance activities while maintaining clear roles, responsibilities, evidence requirements, and accountability.
Module 7: Public Procurement, Contracts and Supply Chain Assurance
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Assessing procurement governance, planning, tendering, evaluation, contract award, supplier management, contract monitoring, payments, and procurement documentation.
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Identifying risks involving conflicts of interest, inadequate competition, procurement irregularities, contract variations, weak segregation of duties, supplier performance, and ineffective oversight.
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Auditing contract management and evaluating whether public sector contracts achieve intended outputs, quality standards, value, timelines, and accountability requirements.
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Applying data analytics and risk indicators to identify unusual procurement patterns, supplier concentrations, repeated awards, transaction anomalies, and potential control weaknesses.
Module 8: Performance, Value for Money and Service Delivery Auditing
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Understanding performance auditing principles and evaluating economy, efficiency, effectiveness, quality, timeliness, and achievement of public sector program objectives.
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Assessing whether public resources are being used efficiently and whether programs, projects, and services deliver intended outcomes and public value.
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Developing appropriate performance audit criteria, indicators, evidence requirements, analytical procedures, benchmarking approaches, and evaluation methods.
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Reporting performance issues in ways that distinguish resource utilization, process weaknesses, service delivery limitations, outcome gaps, and underlying root causes.
Module 9: Fraud, Corruption, Ethics and Misconduct Risks
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Identifying fraud, corruption, bribery, conflicts of interest, abuse of authority, procurement misconduct, payroll irregularities, revenue leakage, and other integrity risks.
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Evaluating fraud risk management frameworks, anti-fraud controls, whistleblowing arrangements, ethical standards, conflict-of-interest processes, and investigation protocols.
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Applying professional skepticism, data analysis, evidence evaluation, and targeted audit procedures to identify fraud indicators without exceeding appropriate investigative authority.
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Coordinating with ethics, compliance, investigations, legal, law-enforcement, and other authorized functions when significant fraud or misconduct concerns arise.
Module 10: Technology, Digital Government and Cybersecurity Assurance
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Assessing information technology governance, access controls, change management, application controls, data management, cybersecurity, system resilience, and technology-related risks.
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Auditing digital government platforms, electronic services, automated processes, data exchanges, cloud environments, and technology-enabled public service delivery.
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Applying data analytics and continuous auditing techniques to identify unusual transactions, control exceptions, trends, anomalies, and emerging risk patterns.
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Evaluating emerging risks involving artificial intelligence, automation, digital identity, privacy, cyber threats, algorithmic decision-making, and technology dependency.
Module 11: Public Sector Compliance and Regulatory Assurance
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Developing audit approaches for assessing compliance with legislation, regulations, government policies, institutional procedures, funding conditions, and applicable contractual requirements.
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Evaluating compliance frameworks, regulatory monitoring, delegated authorities, reporting obligations, licensing requirements, and management responses to identified breaches.
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Distinguishing technical compliance from effective implementation and assessing whether compliance processes support intended governance, control, and public service outcomes.
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Reporting significant compliance weaknesses using evidence-based findings, clear criteria, risk implications, root causes, recommendations, management actions, and appropriate escalation.
Module 12: Public Sector Audit Reporting and Communication
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Developing clear, objective, evidence-based internal audit reports covering findings, criteria, conditions, causes, consequences, risk significance, recommendations, and management responses.
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Communicating significant audit issues effectively to accounting officers, executives, audit committees, boards, oversight bodies, and relevant management stakeholders.
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Handling disagreements over audit findings, disputed evidence, management responses, sensitive issues, and requests to modify or delay significant audit conclusions.
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Using executive summaries, dashboards, data visualization, risk ratings, trend analysis, and thematic reporting to improve governance-level understanding of audit results.
Module 13: Audit Committees, Oversight Bodies and Assurance Coordination
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Understanding the role of audit committees and other oversight bodies in supervising internal audit, financial reporting, risk management, internal controls, and governance.
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Establishing effective communication between internal audit, audit committees, external auditors, risk management, compliance, management, regulators, and other assurance providers.
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Applying combined assurance and assurance mapping techniques to identify coverage gaps, duplicated activities, reliance opportunities, and fragmented assurance responsibilities.
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Supporting governance bodies with integrated information about significant risks, control weaknesses, audit findings, remediation progress, emerging risks, and assurance coverage.
Module 14: Audit Findings, Recommendations and Follow-Up
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Developing well-supported findings by linking evidence, criteria, conditions, causes, consequences, risk significance, and appropriate management actions.
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Conducting root cause analysis to identify systemic weaknesses in governance, controls, processes, resources, accountability, capability, technology, or organizational culture.
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Developing practical recommendations that address underlying causes while considering feasibility, resources, responsibilities, timelines, public value, and sustainability.
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Establishing effective follow-up processes for validating corrective actions, monitoring overdue recommendations, escalating unresolved risks, and reporting remediation status to governance bodies.
Module 15: Emerging Public Sector Risks and Resilience
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Assessing emerging risks involving fiscal pressures, climate and environmental issues, demographic changes, geopolitical developments, technology disruption, and changing citizen expectations.
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Evaluating operational resilience, business continuity, crisis management, critical public services, infrastructure dependencies, and preparedness for major disruptions.
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Auditing third-party service delivery, public-private partnerships, outsourced functions, shared services, and complex supply chains that create additional accountability and assurance challenges.
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Developing forward-looking audit approaches that identify emerging risks early and support public institutions in strengthening resilience, adaptability, and sustainable service delivery.
Module 16: Future-Ready Public Sector Internal Audit and Governance
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Developing a mature public sector internal audit strategy aligned with institutional objectives, governance requirements, risk priorities, public accountability, and service delivery outcomes.
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Integrating risk-based auditing, data analytics, continuous assurance, stakeholder engagement, combined assurance, technology auditing, performance auditing, and emerging risk assessment.
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Establishing performance and quality measures for internal audit covering assurance impact, stakeholder value, audit coverage, recommendation implementation, efficiency, quality, and organizational improvement.
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Creating a practical roadmap for strengthening public sector internal audit independence, capability, governance, technology, assurance coverage, and contribution to accountability and public value.
Training Approach
This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.
Tailor-Made Course
This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808
Training Venue
The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.
Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant
Certification
Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.
Airport Pickup and Accommodation
Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808
Terms of Payment:
Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.
