Attitudes of chief financial officers about modifying state required audit guidelines and procedures in order to increase the effectiveness of the audit as a management tool

The purpose of the study was to determine what modifications to the guidelines and procedures of state required school district audits would result in more effective monitoring and management of school district fiscal practices. Research literature suggests that current practices related to the implementation of the audit guidelines may not provide maximum effectiveness for monitoring the financial condition of school districts.; Data were collected from 88 chief financial officers responding to a questionnaire designed to elicit responses to statements reflecting attitudes about what districts expect from an audit, examples of effective an ineffective audit guidelines, and how audit guidelines can be modified to make the audit a more effective management tool. For each of the 44 Likert-type questions, descriptive summary data, a factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and item-to-item correlation coefficients were computed. Responses to the 5 open-ended questions were reported based upon similarity of responses.; Based upon the perceptions of the responding chief financial officers, this study found several factors that should be considered in making the audit a more effective financial management tool: (1) Campus administrators should be held accountable for addressing the audit findings affecting their school site; (2) the audit should assure the district that the internal controls are adequate; (3) Inconsistencies among audits may arise from how the audit guidelines are interpreted by auditors; and (4) the people and personalities of the audit firm and district have much to do with the effectiveness of the audit.; The implications of the findings are that there is a need to increase the expectations for accountability. Specifically, all district administrators should utilize the audit as a management tool. In order to accomplish this, it is recommended that the audit guidelines be modified to require ongoing staff development so that all district and site administrators better understand the scope of the audit, learn models for addressing the audit findings and recommendations, and are trained in methods of sound and thorough financial analysis, monitoring, and planning.