Project Abstract

Abstract
Auditing plays a crucial role in ensuring organizational effectiveness by providing an independent and objective assessment of an organization's financial statements, internal controls, and compliance with regulations. This research explores the multifaceted impact of auditing on organizational effectiveness through various dimensions. Firstly, auditing helps in enhancing the credibility and reliability of financial information presented by organizations. By conducting audits, external auditors verify the accuracy of financial statements, which in turn builds trust among stakeholders such as investors, creditors, and regulators. Secondly, auditing contributes to improving internal controls within organizations. Through the audit process, weaknesses in internal control systems are identified, and recommendations are made to strengthen these controls. This proactive approach helps in preventing fraud, errors, and inefficiencies, thereby enhancing the overall operational efficiency of the organization. Moreover, auditing serves as a mechanism for ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, and industry standards. By conducting compliance audits, organizations can identify areas of non-compliance and take corrective actions to mitigate risks and avoid potential legal consequences. This aspect of auditing not only safeguards the organization from penalties but also fosters a culture of ethical behavior and corporate governance. Furthermore, auditing plays a critical role in risk management within organizations. By assessing risks and evaluating the effectiveness of risk management processes, auditors provide valuable insights that enable organizations to make informed decisions and mitigate potential threats to their operations. This proactive risk-based approach helps in safeguarding the organization's assets and reputation in an increasingly complex business environment. Additionally, auditing contributes to organizational learning and continuous improvement. Through audit findings and recommendations, organizations can identify areas for enhancement and implement best practices to optimize their performance. This culture of learning and adaptation facilitated by auditing ensures that organizations remain agile and resilient in the face of changing market dynamics and competitive pressures. In conclusion, auditing is a cornerstone of organizational effectiveness, providing assurance to stakeholders, enhancing internal controls, ensuring compliance, managing risks, and driving continuous improvement. By embracing auditing as a strategic tool for governance and performance enhancement, organizations can achieve sustainable growth, mitigate risks, and maintain their competitive edge in today's dynamic business landscape.

Project Overview

Corporate performance management is the area of business intelligence involved with monitoring and managing an organizations performance such as revenue, returns in investment, overhead, operational cort etc. Price Walter house Cooper (2012) noted that it provides the avenue for translating a company’s strategy into measurable targets, in monitoring and evaluating how the company is doing. Corporate performance management gives management, investors, and other stakeholders a real time picture of how the organization is actually in line with its corporate targets so that corporate actions can be taken where necessary.
Margaret (2011) pointed out that it encompasses strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, work fork, reporting, modeling, scenario planning, profitability analysis, key performance indicate monitoring and consolidation as it addresses both financial and generating activities of the business entity.
The key performance indicators according to Massey (2011), means the company’s progress as they relate to its goals and strategy and are usually enshrined in the financial statement of such companies. Harper (2012) and institute of centered accountant of Nigeria (2009) defined the financial statement as a formal record of the financial activities of a business, person or other entities; relevant information about the reporting entity are presented therein the financial statement and in a structured and easily understandable manner, having the following components.

          The very essence of financial statement is deeply routed in the companies and Allied matters Act (2004:5331) which states that “every company shall keep proper accounting record and such records shall be sufficient to show and explain the transactions of the company and shall be such to:

      Information emaciating from the financial statements are so vital that it helps a wide range of users such as shareholders, government, financial institutions, employees, creditors/suppliers, media, the general public etc. in making economic decisions.
Kleinschmidt (2007) pointed out that the very fact that ownership of companies differ from management, their trust is not enough to guarantee the accuracy of such financial statements prepared by management as they emphasized tend to conceal the following:

On account of the above challenges, the need for an independent appraisal of the state of affairs in any company cannot be over emphasized. Little Wonder Paul (2009) was quoted to say that “an audit can be compared to an annual checkup with the doctors, the auditor being the doctor while the company is the patient” in the same vein, section 359(1) of the companies and Allied Matters Act (2004) mandated and the need for auditing of companies individuals and on government accounts to guarantee a reasonable level assurance that the financial statement are true and fair, represent state of affairs at the company. This, Okezie (2008) pointed out helps to reduce or settle disputes that might otherwise arise regarding acceptance of the annual reports and accounts of companies.
In the lights of the foregoing, the researcher shall examine auditing, not just as a concept but also as an exercise, with a view to determining its place as the backbone of organizational effectiveness