Internal control and quality service delivery in a public health sector:

Abstract

The main objective of this paper was to examine the effect of internal control on quality health service delivery in Greater Iganga Local Government. This study adopted a cross-sectional research design. A population of 205 health facilities were targeted. Stratified and simple research techniques were applied to obtain a sample size of 127 health facilities whose accounting managers, health managers and instructors, laboratory officers, personnel managers and drug stock administrators and supervisors formed the unit of inquiry on internal control while health service clients formed the unit of inquiry on the quality of health services offered. Data were collected by the use of questionnaires which were self-administered to 635 respondents. The responses were aggregated to the respective units of analysis (Health Centers). SPSS was employed to execute correlation and regression analysis. The finding revealed that internal control is positive and significantly linked to quality health service delivery (r=0.715; p<0.001). This implies that internal control considerably influences quality health service delivery in Greater Iganga Local Government. The study findings accrued from cross-sectional study design which is screwed with certain limitations. Future study should consider the same study through other study designs. Moreover, the study was done within the setting of Uganda local government, thus future study should consider testing this model in other local governments. Key words: Internal control, quality health service delivery, local government.