Internal control maturity index in local governments (2021-2025): analysis of compliance, stability and replicability

Abstract

The Peruvian State measures the implementation of internal control in each public entity through an official maturity index computed by the Comptroller General from an annual self-assessment, which since 2024 also feeds its corruption-risk index. This study takes that index as the object of evaluation rather than as an explanatory variable. We analyzed the administrative records of the Internal Control System application for the six district municipalities of the province of Utcubamba, Amazonas, over five evaluated periods (2021-2025): 170 deliverables and 26 annual evaluations, in an observational panel design on a census. Using exact tests, we examined compliance with deadlines, the temporal stability of the index, and the replicability of its calculation with the published formula. Non-compliance varies among entities subject to the same requirement, from 6.5 % to 65.2 %; the index swings by up to 78 points within a single entity, reverses the ranking of entities, and shows no sustained direction; and 21 of 32 official values are reproduced by the normative formula, while the rest require an unpublished denominator or budget factor. We conclude that the index does not support comparison across periods or entities without declaring the instrument version, and that its use to classify entities and attribute risk should be conditional on publishing its parameters.