《萨班斯-奥克斯利法》对完善我国上市公司审计委员会制度的影响

我国上市公司的审计委员会制度无论在法律规定还是在实践中,都处于初期阶段,有待于成熟和规范.本文通过对《萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》中美国较为成熟的审计委员会制度的变革过程及变革成果的认识,在分析我国上市公司审计委员会制度实施环境和存在问题的基础上,对完善我国上市公司审计委员会制度提出合理建议.     

The Accuracy and Incremental Information Content of Audit Reports in Predicting Bankruptcy

A series of corporate failures in which auditors failed to warn about impending bankruptcy led to widespread criticism of the UK auditing profession during the last recession. For a sample of 976 quoted companies (1987–94), this paper shows that there are two reasons why audit reports were not accurate or informative indicators of bankruptcy. First, audit reports poorly reflected publicly available information about the probability of bankruptcy. Secondly, strong persistence in audit reporting reduced the accuracy of audit reports     

Evidence of Fraud,Audit Risk and Audit Liability Regimes

We investigate the effectiveness of proportionate liability in reducing the probability of fraud and audit risk relative to joint and several liability in two strategic audit settings: one that provides conclusive evidence of fraud and one that provides inconclusive evidence of fraud. In both settings the auditor makes an audit effort choice, but in the second setting the auditor also evaluates the audit evidence. Our results show that when the auditor chooses only effort, a proportionate liability rule with large marginal liability relief decreases audit risk. However, when the auditor also evaluates the audit evidence this result no longer holds.     

The Business Risk Audit Approach and Audit Production Efficiency

Essentially, this study asks: Does the business risk audit (BRA) approach increase audit production efficiency? To answer this question empirically, direct and indirect tests are employed using proprietary, working paper data from the larger clients of a major Australian public sector audit provider and an efficiency frontier analytic methodology, data envelopment analysis (DEA). Results based on this proprietary, audit hours data for audit engagements carried out just after BRA approach implementation show that they have high levels of production efficiency and are risk-adjusted, with no significant difference in production efficiency between higher and lower business risk audit engagements. Results based on audit fees data for audit engagements carried out shortly before and after BRA approach implementation show that overall production efficiency significantly improves. Importantly, while this improvement is significant for lower-risk audit engagements, there is no significant improvement for higher-risk audit engagements. In the context of this study's research site, this is consistent with the BRA approach addressing inefficiencies created when lower-risk audit engagements are being over-audited. That is, the BRA approach can result in both risk-adjusted and more efficiently produced audits. With the re-emergence of the BRA approach in the literature and in practice, this study provides empirical evidence to support the claim that this audit approach can lead to ‘creating auditing efficiencies’ (Bell et al., 1997, p. 1).     

论我国审计权的法律保障

本文从权力的角度,深入分析了审计权的内涵,继而阐述了我国目前审计权法律保障的现状和不足,并从国际视角比较借鉴了世界其他国家和地区审计权法律保障方面的做法,提出了完善现有法律保障体系和充分利用外部途径建立全方位保障体系两项建议。     

政府审计在国有资产审计监督体系中的作用

我国当前的国有资产审计监督体系包括内部审计监督、社会审计监督和政府审计监督等三个层次。国有资产审计监督是我国国家审计机关的法定审计范围,在对国有资产审计监督方面具有先天的优势,应加强政府审计在国有资产审计监督体系中的主导作用。     

效益审计标准的选择和确定--以某单位国家建设项目设备效益审计为案例研究

在效益审计中,选择和确定合适的审计(评价)标准是非常重要的环节。它是保证效益审计质量的一个必要条件,也是审计人员提出审计意见、做出恰当审计结论的基本依据。本文以某单位国家建设项目设备效益审计作为案例,结合《世界审计组织效益审计指南》,对审计标准问题进行了分析和探讨。最后,就我国政府审计机关在效益审计中如何选择和确定“合适的”审计标准提出几条建议,以期抛砖引玉。     

关于全面推进我国绩效审计创新发展的十大思考

全面推进绩效审计创新发展对于加快转变经济发展方式有着至关重要作用。本文阐述了全面推进我国绩效审计创新发展的十大思考,以期充分发挥审计免疫系统功能,更好地实现十二五审计工作发展规划的目标任务。十大思考分别为:树立绩效审计广义化理念,拓展绩效审计目标,构建中国特色绩效审计模式,探讨绩效的基本内容与计量和构建绩效与责任履行报告,创新绩效审计工作方式方法,建立绩效审计职业制度,构建以政府审计为主导的多元绩效审计监控体系,建立绩效审计报告与绩效审计结果公告制度,建立健全绩效管理制度以及完善相关制度与体制环境。     

Audit Standards and Auditor Liability: A Theoretical Model

The business of auditing is heavily regulated. Auditor regulation exists through licensing, professional standards and liability. The auditor's liability for losses to financial statement users from audit failure is subject to a test of negligence. What constitutes due audit care is, however, not generally well-specified. Furthermore, reviews of litigation against auditors conclude that compliance with professional audit standards does not always act as a complete defence to allegations of negligence. The current situation can be described as one where (ex ante)—from the point of view of the auditor—uncertainty exists about the ‘legal’ standard of due audit quality (as seen by the courts in the event of litigation). This uncertainty about legal standards fundamentally affects audit behaviour in ways that are not immediately intuitive. This paper draws on insights from the economics and law literature (e.g., Kolstad et al., 1990; Shavell, 1984a, 1984b and 1987; Calfee and Craswell, 1984 and 1986) and provides an analysis of the effects of uncertainty about auditor negligence on the produced level of audit quality and on audit fees. The auditor subject to a negligence rule will produce too low or too high an audit quality level, as compared to the socially optimal level. It is shown that uncertainty about the legal standard of ‘due audit quality’ is fundamental to understanding audit quality supplied. This uncertainty is the explicator of an insurance component in audit fees. A surprising insight is that a large uncertainty about the legal standard of care can reduce rather than increase the quality of audit work supplied and increase the insurance component. Relying on insurance premiums can be more effective than direct expenditure in reducing risk. The effect of the imposition of ex ante precise audit quality standards, in combination with an uncertain negligence rule, is discussed. Since the influence of ex ante standards is indirect through its effect on ex post liability, auditing standards cannot be analysed independently of ‘legal’ standards. If the legal standard of care were clear, there would be no role for audit standards. Audit standards only affect audit behaviour if legal standards of care are unclear, and they help to clarify the legal standard. An effective combination is for ex ante standards to be set below the ex post standards of care so that they provide a lower bound on acceptable work. Under a lowest common denominator approach set too far below legal standards, audit standards would be irrelevant as far as operational decisions were concerned. As the level of standards are raised, so costs are first imposed on the lowest quality providers.     

政府绩效审计研究动态评析

通过对国内外政府绩效审计定义、审计范围、审计目标、审计方法、审计结果评价和审计报告等研究内容进行了文献回顾.认为我国政府绩效审计应拓宽国际比较研究对象的范围、构建政府绩效审计研究的整体框架.以期为我国政府缋效审计理论上的深度发展与实务上的良性变革提供借鉴.     

审计委员会特征与会计师事务所变更的经验研究

本文以会计师事务所变更为视角,探讨具备怎样特征的审计委员会才能有效履行其职责。研究表明:审计委员会的独立性和专业性与会计师事务所变更显著负相关;审计委员会的开会次数与会计师事务所变更没有显著关系,说明审计委员会的存在有助于减少会计师事务所变更。但在对会计师事务所变更的进一步研究中,我们并没有发现会计师事务所变是为了追求更高审计质量的进一步证据,也说明审计委员会对会计师事务所变更的影响仍然有限。这些研究结论为完善我国审计委员会制度提供了经验证据。     

人民银行内部实施绩效审计的探索

人民银行内部审计由传统型转向现代管理型符合内部审计的发展潮流。济南分行营业管理部为适应这一潮流,组织开展了对济南市征信管理工作的绩效审计工作。作者通过对审计实践的观察发现了人民银行绩效审计发展所取得的进步和存在的问题。本文在总结经验、分析发现的问题基础上,对可供选择的三种方案进行评价,提出了人民银行系统中心支行以上内审部门发展绩效审计的建议。     

Joint Audits: Does the Allocation of Audit Work Affect Audit Quality and Audit Fees?

Audit quality and cost consequences of joint audits have been continually discussed, especially since the publication of the European Commission’s Green Paper in 2010. We provide new empirical evidence for the French audit market. We show that a more balanced audit work allocation between the engaged audit firms reduces the audit quality and enhances the audit fees as compared to an unbalanced work allocation. We measure the quality effects following the concept of abnormal accruals and the concept of cosmetic earnings management. As unbalanced joint audits have parallels to single audits, our results have interest to those debating the benefits and costs of joint audits as compared to single audits.     

基于大数据环境的财务报销自动审核系统构建

为了有效地解决当前企业财务报销审核系统中审核差错大、运行效率低的问题,在大数据分析的基础上,对自动财务报销审核系统进行了优化。结合数值概率算法,对大量财务报销数据进行合理分类,并将分类后的数据传输到财务项目配置模块进行审批。优化财务审核安全评价流程,检查审核处理结构的准确性。对系统服务器和处理器模块的硬件配置进行了优化,达到了优化财务自动报销审核运行效果和准确性的设计目标。实验证明,基于大数据分析的财务报销自动审核系统的财务审核差错率较传统系统明显降低,系统运行效率较传统审核系统提高20%-50%。     

Competition in the Audit Market: Policy Implications

The audit market's unique combination of features—its role in capital market transparency, mandated demand, and concentrated supply—means it receives considerable attention from policy makers. We explore the effects of two market scenarios that have been the focus of policy discussions: mandatory audit firm rotation and further supply concentration due to the exit of a “Big 4” audit firm. To do so, we first estimate publicly traded firms' demand for auditing services, allowing the services provided by each of the Big 4 to be differentiated products. We then use those estimates to calculate how each scenario would affect client firms' consumer surplus. We estimate that, for U.S. publicly trade firms, mandatory audit firm rotation would induce consumer surplus losses of approximately $2.7 billion if rotation were required after 10 years and $4.7–5.0 billion if after only four years. We find similarly that exit by one of the Big 4 would reduce client firms' surplus by $1.4–1.8 billion. These estimates reflect only the value of firms' lost options to hire the exiting audit firm; they do not include likely fee increases resulting from less competition among audit firms. The latter could result in audit fee increases between $0.75–1.3 billion per year for mandatory rotation and $0.47–0.58 billion per year for the disappearance of a Big 4 audit firm. Such losses are substantial; by comparison, total audit fees for public firms were $11 billion in 2010.     

Audit committees and earnings quality

This research investigates whether audit committees are associated with improved earnings quality for a sample of Australian listed companies prior to the introduction of mandatory audit committee requirements in 2003. Two measures of earnings quality are used based on models first developed by Jones (1991 ) and Dechow and Dichev (2002 ). Our results indicate that formation of an audit committee reduces intentional earnings management but not accrual estimation errors. We also find differences in the associations between audit committee accounting expertise and the two earnings quality measures. Other audit committee characteristics examined are not significantly related to either earnings quality measure.     

会计师事务所组织形式、盈余管理与IPO折价

会计师事务所组织形式由有限责任制变为特殊普通合伙制,增加了审计师的法律责任,提高了审计的鉴证价值和保险价值,有利于审计师在 IPO 审计过程中更好地发挥信息中介作用。以保荐制下 IPO公司为样本,实证考察事务所组织形式对 IPO 盈余管理和 IPO 折价的影响。研究发现,相比有限责任制事务所,特殊普通合伙制事务所审计的发行公司的正向盈余管理水平更低,IPO 折价率也更低。研究结论表明事务所转制后,审计师加强了对发行公司盈余管理行为的约束,提高了 IPO 定价效率,监管部门推动的事务所转制对 IPO 市场具有积极治理效果。     

Auditors' Liability, Vague Due Care, and Auditing Standards

This paper expands the set of previously considered liability rules to include a negligence liability rule with a vague specification of due care. Auditors who are negligent in conducting their audit are liable for losses that result from reliance on misstated financial statements. However, what constitutes negligence for auditors is not clearly specified in the law. Consequently, courts often resort to Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) and Statements on Auditing Standards (SAS) as benchmarks for determining due care. A liability regime that consists of a vague negligence rule supports and amplifies the credibility of auditing standards. While auditing standards alleviate some of the vagueness that is inherent in the legal standard, they also form a lower bound on due care, since an audit of a quality that is lower than the quality that auditing standards require would be considered negligent. Thus, the vague specification of due care enables auditors to commit to audit quality as pronounced in auditing standards. This paper explores this link between professional standards and auditors' legal liability. It establishes that the commitment to auditing standards could not have been as credible as it is, if auditors' liability was determined based on the strict liability rule, or based on a negligence rule with a clearly specified due care, since under these two liability rules courts would not need to refer to auditing standards to establish fault. The paper also demonstrates that a legal regime where audit standards are used as a benchmark to evaluate negligence is not the same as a legal regime where due care is defined clearly. Therefore, previous studies that assumed a negligence regime with clear due care may have overstated the effort level that is induced by legal liability.     

经济责任审计若干法律问题之我见

经济责任审计法律关系是一种特殊的行政法律关系;经济责任审计监督权体现了权力之融合;经济责任审计报告的法律效力主要表现为其具有法律上的约束力,有关部门应将其作为选拔、任用、奖惩领导干部的参考依据;经济责任应划分为直接责任和管理责任;作为个人的经济责任审计当事人也具有行政复议权。本文对上述一系列焦点问题作了全面分析,以期为我国正在进行的经济责任审计立法提供理论支持。     

项目管理技术在国家审计项目管理中的应用

项目管理方法和应用工具的不断完善和创新,使得项目管理技术日臻成熟,并大大拓展了项目管理技术方法的应用领域。国家审计项目管理和现代项目管理在理论和实务两方面都具有高度的一致性,项目管理的绝大部分技术都能在国家审计项目管理中得到应用和推广,包括审计项目的计划管理、成本管理、进度管理、风险管理、后评估等多个方面。充分借鉴项目管理技术,可以有效解决我国国家审计项目管理中存在的缺乏审计项目管理标准、项目控制流于形式、审计质量控制流程薄弱、审计风险控制能力差、审计效率低下等突出问题,促进审计工作的科学化和规范化。