Accountability and Internal Control in Religious Organisations: A Study of Methodist Church Ghana

Abstract

This paper studied the financial accountability and internal control practices of societies within the Kumasi Diocese of the Methodist church. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data from 86 societies out of the 115 (75%) of the Kumasi Diocese. Secondary data was collected from books, journals, annual reports of churches and related researches from the internet. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that the church can improve its internal control system with regard to receipt of income and disbursement of funds. Establishing segregation of duties, recording of financial transactions and authorising the disbursement of funds can greatly improve internal controls. Though this is an exploratory study, it may provide the basis for further studies in examining the internal control practices in other religious organisations in Ghana.

Keywords: financial management; internal control systems; not-for-profit