| dc.description.abstract | The main aim of this research was to scrutinize the effect of internal control systems on
financial accountability within the Technical and Vocational Education and Training
institutions located in Kenya's Eastern region. The Kenyan government had implemented
internal control mechanisms to ascertain the judicious use of funds allocated for education.
Nevertheless, a gap in accountability persisted in certain public TVET institutions. The
objectives that guided this study included; assessing the influence of institutional
governance structure, accounting information systems, legal framework, and monitoring
on financial accountability in TVET institutions in the same region. The theoretical
framework underpinning this study included agency theory, fraud triangle theory, and
accountability theory. The target population was 69 participants, encompassing 23
principals, 23 Board of Governors (BOG) chairs, and 23 finance officers from 23 TVET
institutions within the Eastern Region. Census method was adopted and a mixed-method
approach using a descriptive design was employed in this research. Questionnaires were
used to collect primary data, while scrutinizing audited financial statements to amass
secondary data. The data was processed through a blend of descriptive and inferential
statistical methods. It was established that legal framework had the strongest influence on
performance whereas institutional governance structure had the least influence on financial
performance. The conclusion on institutional governance structure was that the various
financial decisions made by the BOG were closely influenced by personal interests of the
BOG members. On accounting information system, the implementation of AIS had enabled
most TVETs to report their financial standings on time due to efficient processing of
information when inputted accurately. On legal framework, the management had still not
given full authority to legal counsel to fully implement legal measures in bid to curbing
identified careless spending and misappropriation of funds. On monitoring, the extent to
which the BOG did their oversight role was limited by failure to consistently follow
through to monitor budgets implementation process. The study recommends that the BOG
appointing body should conduct thorough background checks to facilitate appointment of
BOG members who have no conflicting interests with the operations of the TVET. On AIS,
the TVET management should provide more funding to strengthen the current accounting
information systems from cyber-attack. Further, the BOG members should appoint a team
of members whose role will include consistent monitoring and evaluation budgets | en_US |
