Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of audit committee characteristics on audit
effectiveness in Kericho County. The study population of 68 senior employees from the county
governments of Kericho. Census sampling was adopted given the small population size. The
study utilized a correlational research design to study the audit committee characteristics and
effectiveness. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of
SPSS software. The study established that the selected audit committee characteristics
accounted for 80.6% of the variations in audit effectiveness (R2
=.806; p<0.05). Specifically,
financial expertise was established to have significant positive effect on audit effectiveness
(b=0.381; p<0.05), independence of audit committee also has a significant positive effect of
audit effectiveness (b=0.158; p<0.05). On the other hand, tenure of audit committee had
significant negative effect on audit effectiveness (b=-0.165; p<0.05). The study found that
frequency of meetings had no significant effect on audit effectiveness as the p-value was >0.05
(b=0.381; p>0.05). These findings lead to conclusion that, to enhance audit effectiveness, the audit committee should comprise diverse membership but must have an expert in finance and
that, the members should be independent and serve for a fixed term. These results are
significant as it provides evidence of the effect of various board characteristics on audit
effectiveness from a developing country and in public sector which can be applied in policy and
enrich the existing literature.
