FORMATION OF CRITERIA FOR MEASURING THE LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF UKRAINE AND SUBORDINATED INSTITUTIONS

Acquiring full membership in the European Union, which is a priority of Ukraine’s national interests, requires ensuring the functioning of a reliable internal control system (ICS) in the public sector institutions of Ukraine. Increasing the effectiveness of internal control (IC) and internal audit (IA) in state bodies of Ukraine is defined as a strategic aim in the system of state internal financial control. In order to identify and implement opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of the ICS, in particular in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (MOD) and subordinate institutions, there is a need to determine the levels of ICS effectiveness.The relevance of this study is due to the lack of unified approaches at the state level to characterizing the levels of effectiveness of the ICS and choosing the criteria for their measurement, as well as the presence of significant problems in the organization and functioning of the ICS in the MOD and in military command bodies, military units, institutions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the State Special Transport Service, which are part of the MOD system.The article highlights the provisions of the domestic methodological framework for the organization and functioning of the IC and IA, the analysis of which has established that the state of the functioning of the ICS should primarily be characterized by the ability of each of its constituent elements to perform the functions assigned to it. Approaches to determining the effectiveness of systems in the theory of systems and in the theory of organization are considered, which made it possible to characterize the level of effectiveness of the functioning of the ICS as the degree to which this system acquires the capability to perform the functions assigned to it to achieve its aim.Special attention in the study is paid to the components that should ensure the functioning of the ICS in the institution, since they serve as the basis for forming criteria by which the level of effectiveness of the ICS can be measured.The methodological basis of the study is the methods of system analysis, methods of generalization, comparison, analogy and synthesis, with the help of which a general characteristic of the state of functioning of the ICS in public sector institutions were determined, a general definition of theconcept of “level of ICS effectiveness” was given and criteria for its measurement were formed.The conducted research contributes to expanding the scientific understanding of the issue of the effectiveness of the functioning of the ICS in public sector institutions. The set of criteria for measuring the level of ICS effectiveness defined in this work can be used to improve the ICS effectiveness assessment model implemented in the MOD, which will allow to more objectively and accurately determine the level of ICS effectiveness in the MOD (institutions subordinate to the MOD) and, accordingly, will expand the possibilities of identifying reserves for increasing the effectiveness of the ICS, and will enable for a prompt response to shortcomings in the ICS, in particular in the processes of the management system. In addition, the article emphasizes the need for regulatory and legal regulation of the procedure for forming and submitting reports on the status of the functioning of the ICS in institutions that are part of the system of a state authority.Future research will be aimed at studying the best practices of the European Union and NATO member states regarding the organization and effectiveness of the functioning of the ICS, which can be taken into account when formulating recommendations for improving the effectiveness of internal control in the MOD system.