Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of external audit on the management of the Common Fund of the Mozambique National Institute of Statistics (INE). Design/methodology/approach – This paper followed a case study approach of the INE Common Fund that was based on the qualitative evidence from the content analysis of the external audit reports, annual plans of activities and budget for the past seven years and interviews with middle managers of the INE. Findings – The research found that external audit has a relatively significant impact on the management of the INE Common Fund. The authors attribute the positive impact to the high concern of management to implement the external audit recommendations, associated with the financial dependence between the agent (the National Institute of Statistics) and the principal (Fund Donors), explained through Laughlin’s Model of Accountability. Practical implications – The results indicate that external audit associated with the financial dependence of the agent on the principal has a significant impact on the accountability. Thus, it contributes to assist in the formulation of public policies on external financing to developing countries. Originality/value – Most of the studies on external audit and accountability are from countries with more developed economies than Mozambique’s, without heavy reliance on external financing, and these studies analyse the audits carried out by public audit institutions. This research explores the phenomenon in the context of external financing to the State Budget by governments and international organisations.

Introduction

Despite recording high levels of economic growth, Mozambique continues to be heavily dependent on the foreign aid for the State Budget financing (Castel-Branco, 2011). One of the main financing mechanisms for the State Budget is the Common Fund, which refers to the common mechanism that gathers the financial contributions from foreign aid. The INE activities are funded about 50 per cent by external organisations and governments through the Common Fund. In the past years, there has been a growing importance of external audit of public finances in developing countries such as Mozambique to ensure transparency and accountability of foreign-aid funds. External audit is described as a mechanism that provides reliability of accounts both in public and private organisations and that serves as assurance for the interested parties regarding the correct information about efficacy and efficiency in the management of organisational resources (Mzenzi and Gaspar, 2015; Ng, 2002). The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the INE and the Cooperating Partners (2013) establish a mandatory annual external audit of all funds received under the Common Fund to be undertaken by a firm of auditors, selected according to the public procurement rules of the country. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of external audit on the management of the INE Common Fund. The study was motivated by the lack of surveys on the impact of external audit on the management of public funds, especially in developing countries that are heavily dependent on the international financial aid to finance their budgets. In Mozambique, for example, we could not find a similar study or survey on this topic. In many countries (Tanzania: Tulli, 2014; Mzenzi and Gaspar, 2015; Nigeria: Salawu and Agbeja, 2007; Estonia: Raudla et al., 2016; China: Gong, 2009) studies on the impact of external audit on the management of public funds/accountability have been conducted. However, in other countries, with more developed economies than Mozambique’s and without heavy reliance on external financing, such studies have been focusing on the audits carried out by public audit institutions. Thus, the main research question was formulated as follows: RQ1. What is the impact of external audit on the accountability of the INE Common Fund? This article is divided into seven parts: introduction, prior studies, Laughlin’s Model of Accountability, the study context, research method, presentation and discussion of results and conclusions. First, in the introduction, we present the context of our research, motivation and objective. In the prior studies, we provide a discussion on the accountability and auditing in public sector organisations and then the Laughlin’s (1990) Model of Accountability. Next, we explain the methodology used in our research. Finally, we present the discussion of the results and conclusions of the investigation.