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Internal audit function (IAF) is one of the most important meanings for management to confirm and verify the compliance of administrative units in the financial and administrative policies, legislations, financials and administrative systems as well as the adoption of public policies. IAF also helps in running an organization more efficiently and effectively to increase stakeholders’ value. Moreover, with growing size and attention given to the zakat institutions in the recent years, it has made an increase importance of IAF. Due to the importance of IAF, this paper aims to identify the perceived effectiveness of internal audit department (IAD) in zakat institutions (ZI) from auditees’ perspective to assist on close cooperation and necessary improvement in the IAF. To develop the understanding of the factors that lead to effectiveness of IAD, this paper used qualitative method which is semi-structured interview auditees from four selected ZIs in Malaysia. Each ZIs was represented by two auditees from two different department. There are two factors explored, namely organizational status and competency of IAD. The findings show that both factors are important to achieve the effectiveness of IAF. Additionally, most of the auditees (ZI1, ZI2 and ZI3) agreed that management support are the main factors affecting the IAD effectiveness. Meanwhile, ZI4 perceived that training is the main factor contributing to the same effectiveness. It is hoped that the findings are able to increase the awareness among ZI’s auditors and management to improve the IAD effectiveness in the future.  

The recent economic conditions continue to draw significant attention to the multitude of risks organizations face as they pursue strategic goals. Public and non-profit organizations (NPO) are not an exception when it comes to risks that can challenge their service delivery system and growth sustainability. Their unique features and limited resources require them to adopt and adapt different risk management tools and methods as compared to the corporate organizations. Specifically, the risk management approach adopted in public organizations and NPOs has not been significantly addressed. Hence, this paper aims to explore the development of risk management in public organizations and NPOs. By conducting a systematic review of literature, 12 papers published in the Scopus and Web of Science from 2010 until recent year have been selected and analyzed. Findings from the literature analysis found various types of risks occur in these organizations and demonstrate the factors and importance of adopting risk management practices. However, a holistic approach is still not diffused nor sufficiently developed in both public and not-for-profit sectors. Research on the successful delivery of risk management is still dearth, which creates a huge research gap thus still an area worth researching. The findings from this literature analysis suggest that an instrument or tool to evaluate the practices of the risk management system is required. Thus, this paper serves as the basis for further empirical research on risk management practices of public and non-profit organizations.