Internal Audit Function & the Development of Corporate Governance Code

This research proposal explores the relationship between internal audit function and corporate governance code, with a focus on the adoption and application of corporate governance code in Libya, specifically at Harouge Oil Operations. The proposal includes a literature review, research methodology, and specific objectives.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Internal Audit Function & the Development of Corporate Governance Code

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. The rationale for Research in this Area..................................................................................2
3. Specific Objectives.................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review...................................................................................................................4
The concept of internal audit function within an organisation...............................................4
The concept of corporate governance.....................................................................................5
The theoretical perspective of the internal audit function and corporate governance............5
Developing and implementing well-aligned internal audit strategy.......................................7
Role of internal audit function in developing corporate governance code.............................8
Conceptual framework.........................................................................................................10
5. Research methodology:........................................................................................................10
Type of Research..................................................................................................................11
Research approach................................................................................................................12
Research Technique..............................................................................................................13
Research Design...................................................................................................................14
Sampling Technique.............................................................................................................14
Methodology for Collection of Data....................................................................................15
Proposal to Analyse the Evidence........................................................................................15
6. Research Problems / Potential Weaknesses.........................................................................15
7. Ethics....................................................................................................................................17

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Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
Appendix..................................................................................................................................20

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1. Introduction
Corporate governance can be defined as oversight of the organisation's policies, procedures
and practices. This oversight assists the organisation to ensure the operation in best interests
of the organisation and its shareholders. In addition, this method of controlling corporate
governance is done by the Board of Directors and the management can employ the internal
auditors to monitor and test the internal control (Hayes 2017). In this research proposal, the
theory of corporate governance and the relationship between corporate governance and
internal audit will be explained. The purpose of the research proposal is to explain the
adoption, introduction and application of corporate governance code in Libya, mainly in
Harouge Oil Operations. Therefore, problem statement, aim and objectives of the study will
be identified. In addition, a literature review of the scholarly articles will be done in order to
establish a theoretical understanding of the study. In the methodology section, data collection
and analysis procedure will be discussed.
2. The rationale for Research in this Area
The performance of most African countries in general, particularly in Libya, has been weak
in efforts to combat corruption and create an environment of integrity. Meanwhile, in the
context of corporate governance (CG), developed and developing countries have recently
faced serious financial crises and economic collapses as a result of corporate failures (Brown
and Caylor, 2006).
However, with regard to the globalized economy, the Internal Audit Function is created as an
important tool for the precise management of any commercial economic resources. On the
other hand, and as a result of major scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, Volkswagen
emissions and others, Corporate Governance recently has received considerable attention

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from the public and the regulators (Drogalas et al., 2016). In the context of corporate
governance, they focused more on increasing disclosure requirements, which in turn
increased the demand for internal assurance on CG processes, as well as the internal control
and risk management.
Therefore, internal audit function, with its unique position in the organizations, is well
developed for the purpose of providing this assurance (Soh and Martinov-Bennie, 2011).
Internal auditing should be a pillar that supports CG, and a very important tool for identifying
risks that may take in carrying out activities in an environmental disturbance (Zaharia, Lazar
and Tilea, 2014).
Libya, as a developing country, has recently realized that responsible government is essential
for success and development, and recognized that there was a need to create an environment
of integrity, in order to prevent corruption and provide a good environment for the
development of both the public and private sectors. Therefore, this research will be conducted
for the purpose of contributing to the literature on CG in Libya, and particularly, at Harouge
Oil Operations "as a case study".
3. Specific Objectives
This research aims to examine the contribution of the internal audit function in theory to
corporate governance, as well as to study the relationship between various corporate
governance elements, such as the board of directors, internal audit, external audit and the
audit committee. By reviewing the literature extensively, the originality of the study is to
provide an integrated framework for internal audit and corporate governance. However, the
main purpose of this research is to study the introduction, adoption and application of
corporate governance code in Libya, particularly in Harouge Oil Operations. Therefore, the
objectives of this study are as presented below:

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 To examine efficacies of internal audit function in the process of promoting good
governance with a special emphasis on developing nation such as Libya
 Reviewing the internal audit roles in promoting effective governance in internal
control process and risk management
 To implement best internal auditing practices in the development of corporate
governance code for the purpose of promoting good corporate governance in Libya
4. Literature Review
The concept of internal audit function within an organisation
Internal audit is an objective assurance, independent and consulting activity and it is designed
to provide value and develop a firm’s operations (Abbott et al. 2016). Internal audit assists an
organisation to accomplish its goals by creating a systematic as well as disciplined approach
to improve and evaluate the risk management, the effectiveness of the control and governance
systems. Internal audit can be defined as the catalyst for developing corporate governance by
giving recommendations and managerial insights. This analysis is mainly done by assessment
of business processes and data. As stated by Lenz and Hahn (2015), with a commitment
towards accountability and integrity; internal auditing can share value to senior management
as well as governing bodies as an objective source of service that is independent. The authors
further argued that within an organisation, the roles of internal auditing are broad and it
encompasses with corporate governance, management controls, risk management, the
effectiveness of the organisational operations, reliability of management and financial
reporting and it also helps the organisation to follow compliance with regulations and laws.
As opined by Pizzini et al. (2014), internal auditing is very important in the developing
countries where corruption and fraud activities are prevalent as it involves in conducting

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proactive audits in fraudulent cases through investigating and participating fraud
examinations.
The concept of corporate governance
Corporate governance can be defined as the practices, rules and processes through which the
firms are controlled and directed. As opined by Dodd (2017), corporate governance is
involved in balancing the interest of the company's stakeholders and the stakeholders of the
organisations are the management, shareholders, customers, financiers, suppliers and
community. Corporate governance gives the organisation a chance to provide a framework
towards gaining the company's objectives and it surrounds the practically every aspect of the
management (McCahery et al. 2016). Corporate governance encompasses from internal
controls of the performance of the organisation to the actions plan about the performance
measurement. According to Tricker (2015), the board of directors are primary stakeholders of
the corporate governance and shareholders elect the directors of the organisations. The
directors take important decisions about the business. On the other side, as stated by Allen
(2017), poor corporate governance can make doubt about the company’s integrity, reliability
and obligations towards the shareholders. In recent time, Volkswagen faced the issue of poor
corporate governance when it got caught in emission scandal of the organisation.
The theoretical perspective of the internal audit function and corporate governance
Agency Theory of corporate governance
Agency theory involves the issues of the directors that control the company whereas
shareholders own the company. Agency theory takes this issue into consideration to prevent
it. According to Hoenen and Kostova (2015), the key concept of agency theory is that an
agent is recruited by the principle to continue the task on their behalf and the agency is the
relationship between the agent and the principle. The authors in the article further stated that

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agencies costs are given by the principles in controlling the agency behaviour just because of
the lack of trust in the belief of the agents. It is needed to undertake the task on behalf of the
agent and the agent becomes accountable to that principle. There are three separations of
ownership and control; such as principal (shareholders), agents (directors) and task
(Managing the company) (Muller 2017). The agency theory helps the company to create the
corporate governance and it starts with the companies owned and managed by the same
people. In the next stage, it expands the business through required investors and these people
could be shareholders and limited liability. In the following stage, it delegates the running of
the company and to managers (agents). In the next stage, the company goes towards the
separation of the goals. As stated by Bosse and Phillips (2016) separation of ownership in
business can lead to the potential issues between directors and shareholders and principal-
agent relationship can be dealt with corporate governance codes and that with the firm with
the auditors.
Stewardship Theory of corporate governance
Stewardship theory is about the managers who can act as responsible stewards of the
principle and assets that they control (Kruitwagen et al. 2017). In addition, stewardship
theory is the alternative view of the agency theory where the managers are taken as to act in
their own enthusiasm and self-interest. It can be specified that stewardship is a certain
mechanism to reduce agency loss. This policy is included the compensation, keeping
executive, levels of benefits and managers' incentives schemes through rewarding the
financially and it offers shares through alignment. It offers financial interest to the staffs to
motivate them in order to offer better performance. As stated by Allen (2017), the steward is
someone who takes care and protects of the needs of others and firms' executives try to take
care of the interest of the shareholders and they make a decision about the firms.

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Developing and implementing well-aligned internal audit strategy
Internal audit function has an annual budget plan and the corporate governance asks the
internal auditors to have a specific strategic plan. As stated by Alless et al. (2018), internal
audit strategy should be three to five years plan and roadmap of the organisation will be
based on the overall strategy and stakeholders' expectation from the organisation. A well-
aligned strategy has four steps to create an internal-audit specific strategic plan. In African
countries and in large organisations; developing formal internal audit strategy needs planning
as the corruption is much there. At first, the organisations need to develop or refine the
internal audit's strategic vision and the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders should be
well described. The vision of the internal auditors should be mandated clearly. The
organisation needs to accomplish this in long-term period. As stated by Chan and Vasarhelyi
(2018), in the next stage of the well-defined plan; the organisations need to recognise and
prioritise the key strategic initiatives to mandate the strategic vision of the internal audit and
initiatives must be taken to smaller the key business risks of the organisation. In addition, in
the next stage, the organisation can design the appropriate KPI for the stakeholders. The
shareholders or the board of directors can determine the success of internal audit through key
performance indicators against the prioritised initiatives. The organisation can track the
value-driven measure and the productivity (Chambers and Odar 2015). Lastly, the
organisations need to develop the operating strategy through tracking the activities to gain the
strategic initiatives. The internal auditors can determine the key milestones through
communicating these to the external stakeholders. In the article named Internal Audits and
Its Role in Corporate Governance, Al Jabali et al. (2011) stated that corporate governance
has two essential activities, one is crystallises the risk control and other one is audit assurance
regarding the regulatory control. Supervisor controls check the effectiveness of submission
reports and internal audit standards check the effectiveness of corporate governance. The

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authors also stated the view that internal auditors need to be fully prepared in order to audit
the operations of the organisations and control the accounting system, tactical operations and
administrative process.
Role of internal audit function in developing corporate governance code
As opined by Griffiths (2016), corporate governance is the system through which the
organisations are controlled and directed; the accurate corporate governance structure has
specified the distributions of responsibilities and rights among the various stakeholders and
departments within the organisation. The organisations mainly have a multi-layered system
through which it controls the overall system of organisations. The first layered of the
corporate governance lies within departments where the process of working ensures the
controls targeting the errors of misconduct. The CEO of the organisation gets the internal
assurance from the internal audit system and board of directors use the internal audit system
to ensure that all the stakeholders and departments within the organisation must be
trustworthy and accurate. Shareholders can make sure whether their interests and money are
well-protected. The various systems within the companies are functioning and sufficient the
way it works within the organisation (Chambers and Odar 2015). Therefore, sometimes,
external auditors come to evaluate the system to provide recommendations to the owners. The
board of directors need to establish the transparent arrangements and formal presentation to
apply the risk management, task reporting and internal control principles so that it can
maintain a relationship with auditors of the organisation.
In the article named Internal audit and its role in improving the corporate governance
systems, authors Tabara and Ungureanu (2012) opined that corporate governance implies the
cycle that goes from the monitoring role to the steering of the operational and administrative
activities. The authors also stated that the objective of the corporate governance is to make a
balance between various actors to implement power control instrument and interested parties

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in the capital of entity. Internal auditors bring the systematic and disciplines aspects towards
improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of the organisational system and governance
process (Christ et al. 2015). The positive role of internal audit goes beyond the safeguarding
and controlling of the corporate assets, enforcing corporate liabilities and regulatory
compliance; the role of the internal auditor is to create the value and suggesting the
development of the organisational corporate governance. On the other hand, as contradicted
by Hayes (2017), internal auditors ensure the effective internal control and adequacy of the
control system which ensures the responsible governance. According to Alzeban and
Gwilliam (2014), internal audit assists the Board and stakeholders in protecting the
reputation, assets, sustainability of the company. The responsibility of the internal audit is
just not to extend the financial control and to maintain the surrounding of the non-financial
performance as well.

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Conceptual framework
Figure: Conceptual framework
(Source: Self-developed)
5. Research methodology:
Research is defined as the systematic way that researchers undertake to find out more about
things to increase their knowledge (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2014), and the overall
approach of the research process, from the theoretical basis to data collection and analysis, is
referred to as the methodology (Hussey and Hussy, 1997). However, Silverman (2005) stated
that the methodology could not be right or wrong; it is only matter of more or less useful.

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The current section sketches the research design, target population, size of the sample along
the procedures that were utilized for selection of the sample elements (McCusker and
Gunaydin 2015). In essence, this covers all the research instruments and the processes for
collection of data and illustrates all the mechanisms that are used for analysing data.
Type of Research
The researcher intends to implement secondary research in this specific study that
corresponds to the topic of the research on internal audit and its consequences on good
corporate governance code. The researcher intends to utilize secondary data for the purpose
of carrying out the current study (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015).
Secondary data indicates towards the data that was acquired previously by someone other
than the current user, it can be assimilated from various government reports, official websites,
books, journals as well as newspapers on internal audit and corporate governance of
particularly Libya. In addition to this, specific cases of Harouge oil operations can also take
into consideration and data are collected from the official website, company literature and
articles on the same.
The philosophical underpinning of the adopted research
As rightly indicated by Jaggar (2015), there are necessarily three different types of
philosophies of research namely positivism, realism as well as interpretivism. Bryman and
Bell (2014) suggest that positivism refers to specific positive knowledge that is entirely
founded on natural phenomenon, features as well as associations.
The second type, which is Interpretivism, can be considered to be a social approach that falls
under social science and is quite opposite to that of the positivist approach. This specific
philosophy of research can be applied for the purpose of undertaking qualitative research.

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Basically, the qualitative research can be regarded as a mechanism of inquiry in the field of
social science together with other associated disciplines simultaneously (Choy 2014).
Again, realism refers to a particular philosophy of research that depends upon the
independence of thoughts and different ideas regarding reality. In essence, this research
philosophy can be said to be founded on suppositions of a specific scientific approach to the
work of development of knowledge (Neuman and Robson 2014)
For the purpose of the present study, the researcher intends to use Interpretivism philosophy
that can fittingly adapt to the current research study. This philosophy gets related to the
philosophical situation of idealism and can be utilized by the entire group and takes into
consideration social constructivism (Panneerselvam 2014). According to this specific
approach, it is necessary for the researcher as a specific social actor to fittingly appreciate
variances that exist between individuals.
Research approach
As rightly put forward by Gast and Ledford (2014), deductive research approach can be said
to be associated to the development of hypothesis founded on subsisting themes and
formulating a strategy of research for examining given hypothesis. However, it can be
observed that this deductive research approach replicates the reasoning criterion from
different general facts.
This approach can be considered as one of the research designs that help in examining
associations otherwise links that can be gathered from generic conditions (Smith, 2015).
Thus, it can be hereby said that deductive approach can help in deducting hypothesis from the
present theory. The themes can help in formulating a hypothesis in functional terms and
examine proposed associations between two given variables.

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Again, inductive approach refers to a specific approach to research that deduces broader and
wider generalizations and notions from particular and specific observations. Particularly, this
specific approach essentially starts from specific observations along with dimensions and
therefore and identifies patterns (Silverman, 2016).
For the purpose of the present study, the researcher intends to implement the deductive
approach as that primarily concentrates on assessing the notions of development of internal
audit and good corporate governance code in a developing nation such as Libya are valid
enough. In this case, the researcher intends to construct research hypothesis on prior concepts
and test the validity of the same by comparing the same with various secondary sources of
data.
In addition, this deductive research approach can also help in the process of directly
formulating a hypothesis and thereafter designing a strategy of research for examining of the
hypothesis. Essentially, deductive approach starts with an anticipated pattern in which it is
examined against observations (Flick, 2015).
Research Technique
According to Lewis (2015), the research technique indicates towards the procedures that can
be employed to attain research objectives. Research technique comprises of the blueprint for
the purpose of collection, enumeration along with an evaluation of data. The researcher
intends to utilize the research design known as mono-method for the current secondary
research that counts only the qualitative research design. Qualitative design of research takes
into consideration an approach that is both systematic as well as subjective. This can be
utilized for illustrating practical experiences and delivering significant connotation (Mackey
and Gass, 2015).

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Furthermore, the researcher intends to undertake the study on the development of internal
audit and its impacts on corporate governance after acquirement of qualitative data on the
same. Thus, the academic articles, journals, prior case studies and others.
Research Design
As correctly indicated by Taylor et al. (2015), there are three different types of research
design namely explanatory, exploratory as well as descriptive research design. He suggests
that exploratory research design is a specific design in which the researcher investigates the
selected problem and the said situation that in turn helps in delivering insights into the
research study.
Again, descriptive study is yet another type of design of research in which researcher attempt
to explore and at the same time explain supplementary information on areas related to the
topic of research (Mackey and Gass, 2015). In addition to this, the explanatory design of
research indicates towards a specific design in which the researcher intends to relate various
ideas for establishing the cause and effect associations (Silverman, 2016).
For the purpose of this study, the researcher intends to utilize the descriptive design of
research since it helps in fittingly utilizing secondary data and undertaking an evaluation of
previously acknowledged facts. Implementing the descriptive research can help the
researcher to undertake investigations of the acknowledged facts and thereafter drawing
conclusions by means of thematic evaluation.
Sampling Technique
The technique that can be utilized for the present study is utilizing the secondary data and
using thematic evaluation in which data as well as information can be generated from the
previously published academic body of literature, books, and journals along with official
websites (Flick, 2015).

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Methodology for Collection of Data
For the purpose of the present study, the researcher intends to gather data from currently
published journals, official websites, case studies, academic reports, articles, published
government reports and many others (Silverman, 2016). The technique here is mainly
thematic that takes data from the above-mentioned sources.
Proposal to Analyse the Evidence
The researcher has the intention to undertake a thematic analysis of qualitative data collected
as the current research is mainly founded on secondary data. Essentially, thematic evaluation
is a widely utilized qualitative data evaluation method that the researcher can use for the
present purpose. Fundamentally, this method can be considered to be one of the clusters of
various methods that primarily concentrate on recognizing the meaning of identified patterns
in a provided set of data (Choy, 2014).
Furthermore, the researcher intends to adopt a specific type of thematic analysis where things
are carried out in a deductive manner and where the process of development of theme is
mainly directed by subsisting notions as well as thoughts. As such, it is the case in which
researchers can implement and utilize prior information from diverse sources and
consequently draw conclusions by establishing their point and validating the stated research
objectives. Essentially, it concentrates on specific reality and thereafter aims at deducing and
deriving conclusions out of the studied reality so that positive result can necessarily be
generated.
6. Research Problems / Potential Weaknesses
Research problems

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With the globalized nation, internal audit can be instituted as an imperative way for the
appropriate management of any business economic resources. Concurrently, corporate
governance necessarily has accepted wide attention in current years both in practice as well
as in academic research due to major accounting scandals as well as large-scale corporate
failures. Current corporate scandals together with earnings restatement have led to an
augmented stress on the requirement for strong corporate governance to make the certain
high quality of financial reporting by reporting entities (Drogalas et al., 2016). However, the
question that is left unanswered is whether internal auditors need to be among individuals that
need to be blamed at the time when corporations are on the verge of crumbling.
The research study might encounter different limitations that are likely to hinder access
information that the study requires. The current study might also face the limitation of
incapability to take in factors that are outside the purview of developing nation such as Libya.
Appropriate management can be considered to be an important issue of concern is
particularly developing countries.
Potential weaknesses
Internal auditing can be considered as an extremely dynamic and significant subject and is
presently at a crucial stage of development since there is a rising demand for various audit
services. The current study intends to institute a positive association between broad elements
of corporate governance and that of internal auditing. However, a primary limitation of this
current study is that it is not concentrated on any particular industry, size of the organization
or else any specific sector. Therefore, scholars can in future that all these limitations into
consideration for further research work. For this purpose, it is suggested further research to
undertake a focused approach by assessing different matters in diverse areas of industry
segments and size of organizations and analyse the development of different individual

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component and stages of the approach. In addition to this, the current study also does not take
into consideration the conceptual structure of national as well as international level, relation
to International Audit Standards, principle postulates, regulations and norms and diverse
technical instruments.
7. Ethics
This research will not be done using primary data; therefore, no human participants
will be associated with this research. The research would follow the ethical standards, rules
and norms. The ethics describe that the researcher will not follow any wrong practice while
researching. The researcher will not break any ethical norms and the researcher will strictly
adhere to the policy of the research. The researcher will complete the ethical checklist and
most importantly, the researcher will do the research using secondary data. The researcher
will collect the data through books, journals, online articles, government websites, company
website and online reports. The researcher will not fabricate or modify any data those would
be collected through the secondary sources. The fundamental ethics issues to the secondary
data are related to remaining same and with the advent of new technologies; the literature
becomes more pressing. The ethics are related to the data sharing, storage, compiling and
these are becoming more faster. The researcher is aware of the fact about the data
confidentiality and security of the data breaches. The researcher will put in-text citation
throughout the write-up. Secondary data do not need permission to take as the researcher will
collect the secondary data through archive notes, documentary notes and case notes. It will be
assumed that the ethical consideration is less in secondary data as it draws the experience of
the collaborative of the research project. Internal audit and corporate governance related
information are scarce in literature; therefore, the researcher will collect the information from
secondary sources with the purpose of the present study.

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Reference List
Abbott, L.J., Daugherty, B., Parker, S. and Peters, G.F., 2016. Internal audit quality and
financial reporting quality: The joint importance of independence and competence. Journal of
Accounting Research, 54(1), pp.3-40.
Al-jabali, M.A., Abdalmanam, O. and Ziadat, K.N., 2011. Internal Audit and its Role in
Corporate Governance. Middle Eastern Finance and Economics, 11, pp.161-176.
Allen, W.T., 2017. Our schizophrenic conception of the business corporation. In Corporate
Governance (pp. 79-99). Gower.
Alles, M.G., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M.A., 2018. Putting continuous auditing theory into
practice: Lessons from two pilot implementations. In Continuous Auditing: Theory and
Application (pp. 247-270). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Alzeban, A. and Gwilliam, D., 2014. Factors affecting the internal audit effectiveness: A
survey of the Saudi public sector. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and
Taxation, 23(2), pp.74-86.
Bosse, D.A. and Phillips, R.A., 2016. Agency theory and bounded self-interest. Academy of
Management Review, 41(2), pp.276-297.
Chambers, A.D. and Odar, M., 2015. A new vision for internal audit. Managerial Auditing
Journal, 30(1), pp.34-55.
Chan, D.Y. and Vasarhelyi, M.A., 2018. Innovation and practice of continuous auditing.
In Continuous Auditing: Theory and Application (pp. 271-283). Emerald Publishing Limited.

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Christ, M.H., Masli, A., Sharp, N.Y. and Wood, D.A., 2015. Rotational internal audit
programs and financial reporting quality: Do compensate controls help?. Accounting,
Organizations and Society, 44, pp.37-59.
Dodd, E.M., 2017. For whom are corporate managers trustees?. In Corporate
Governance (pp. 29-47). Gower.
Griffiths, P., 2016. Risk-based auditing. Abingdon: Routledge.
Hayes, C.H., 2017. Internal audit as police: perhaps it's time to embrace our image as
corporate protectors rather than fighting against it. Internal Auditor, 74(3), pp.68-69.
Hoenen, A.K. and Kostova, T., 2015. Utilizing the broader agency perspective for studying
headquarters–subsidiary relations in multinational companies. Journal of International
Business Studies, 46(1), pp.104-113.
Kruitwagen, L., Madani, K., Caldecott, B. and Workman, M.H., 2017. Game theory and
corporate governance: conditions for effective stewardship of companies exposed to climate
change risks. Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 7(1), pp.14-36.
Lenz, R. and Hahn, U., 2015. A synthesis of empirical internal audit effectiveness literature
pointing to new research opportunities. Managerial Auditing Journal, 30(1), pp.5-33.
McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2016. Behind the scenes: The corporate
governance preferences of institutional investors. The Journal of Finance, 71(6), pp.2905-
2932.
Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pizzini, M., Lin, S. and Ziegenfuss, D.E., 2014. The impact of internal audit function quality
and contribution on audit delay. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 34(1), pp.25-58.

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Tabara, N. and Ungureanu, M., 2012. Internal audit and its role in improving corporate
governance systems. Annales Universitatis Apulensis: Series Oeconomica, 14(1), pp.139-
145.
Tricker, R.B. 2015. Corporate Governance: Principles, policies, and practices. Oxford
University Press, USA.

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Appendix
Ethical Checklist
Student’s ID
Submission date
Proposal Research Title Internal Audit Function & the Development of Corporate
Governance Code
Brief description the research Libya, as a developing country, has recently realized that
responsible government is an essential for success and
development, and recognized that there was a need to
create an environment of integrity, in order to prevent
corruption and provide a good environment for the
development of both the public and private sectors.
Therefore, this research will be conducted for the purpose
of contributing to the literature on CG in Libya, and
particularly, at Harouge Oil Operations as a case study.
Sample Secondary data is collected, mostly exclusion criteria is
selected where the researcher will collect the data those
have been published after 2010.
Where the data will be stored The data will be stored in the researcher’s desktop and
cloud; those are pdf and soft copy.
Is the data anonymised Yes
When will the data be
destroyed
The data will be destroyed once the research is finished.
The data will be used only for the research purposes.