Effect of audit committee technical competence on financial performance of sugar milling companies in western Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of Audit Committee (AC) technical competence on the financial performance of sugar milling companies in Western Kenya. The legislative provision on the Public Finance Management Act 2012 and its regulations 2015 laws of Kenya has given force on full implementation of Audit Committee. The study adopted Ex-post Facto and descriptive as the research design. The target population was 37 members of Audit Committee in all the eleven sugar milling companies in Western Kenya. The study used questionnaire and document analysis guide to collect primary and secondary data respectively. The secondary data were derived from audited and published accounts of the sugar milling companies for the period 2014-2016 financial years. Data analysis was done inferentially and descriptively. The finding was that Audit Committee technical competence had an effect on the financial performance of the sugar milling companies as was explained with a variation of up to 67.8%. The study recommended that, Audit Committee members to continue undergoing induction on new financial developments in order to be more technically competent.