Quality of Financial Statements and Tenure of Statement-Related Personnel

This study investigates the association between quality of financial statements and tenure of statement-related personnel. First, we examined whether there is still a significant association between financial statement quality and the tenure of audit partners who are responsible for the quality assurance of financial statements after the implementation of mandatory audit partner rotation. We addressed this issue by using a sample of Taiwanese companies, with which no significant association between audit partner tenure and the magnitude of discretionary accruals （DA）, a common proxy for financial statement quality, was found. Second, we investigated whether an association exists between the financial statement quality and the tenure of management who is responsible for the preparation of financial statements. We also addressed this issue by using Taiwanese data and found a significant association between management tenure （MT） and the magnitude of DA. Our findings provide evidence that audit partner tenure would neither improve nor deteriorate the quality assurance of a financial statement, when there is a mandatory audit partner rotation after a fixed period of time. Whereas how MT affects financial statement quality after the enactment of the mandatory audit partner rotation is dependent on the management position. Increasing tenure of chief executive officer （CEO） and chief financial officer （CFO） will enhance and hinder financial statement quality respectively. In the end, we found a significant interaction of tenure between auditor and CFO. This result implies that the downward bias of CFO on the financial statement preparation can be mitigated by auditors with increasing tenure.     

Effects of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation Upon Quality of Audit： The Perception of Audit Firms Evidence From Bahrain

The objectives of this study are： （1） to explore current audit appointment practices by audit firms in Bahrain; （2） to look into the opinions of audit firms in Bahrain on potential effects provided by implementing mandatory audit firm rotation （audit quality）; and （3） to investigate audit firms＇ views in implementing mandatory audit firm rotation in Bahrain. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to respondents that consist of all auditors working in audit firms in Bahrain. The findings indicated that there is a significant relationship between mandatory audit firm rotation and quality of audit. The study also indicated that longer partner tenure makes the auditor＇s performance lack the quality in the auditing process. The average mean for all questions of the hypothesis together is 2.73 with average standard deviation of 0.94 which is less than half of the mean. This means that there is no dispersion among respondents about the questions of the hypothesis. Also, the analysis shows that the t-value is 29.922, which is greater than the table critical value of t （1.66）, and the p-value obtained is 0.000 which is less than the value of significance at p 〈 0.05. These results confirm statistically that there is a significant relationship, so the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted.     

The Effects of Audit Committee Attributes on Fraudulent Financial Reporting

This study aims to examine the relationship between audit committee attributes （audit committee independence, financial expertise, meeting frequency, gender diversity, and ethnic composition） and the propensity for fraudulent financial reporting. The sample includes 116 fraudulent and non-frandulent firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2005 to 2010. The finding of this study indicates that audit committee independence is positively associated with fraudulent financial reporting. The higher the proportion of independent or outside directors on the committee, the higher the possibility of financial fraud, and vice versa. The results also show that the expertise of members of the audit committee is negatively associated with corporate fraud. This suggests that when audit committee members are financially literate, they are more competent to curb fraudulent financial reporting. However, the findings for frequency of audit committee meetings, gender, and ethnicity show that there is no relationship between these variables and corporate fraud. The result of this study is robust after controlling for other firm-specific effects.     

Does an Auditor＇s Within-Industry Market Share Still Capture Auditor Industry Expertise in a Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation Regime？

Prior studies commonly use an auditor＇s market share in an industry as a proxy for auditor industry expertise and find that audit quality is positively related to an audit partner＇s within-industry market share in a voluntary audit partner rotation regime where the length of the client-partner relationship is not limited. Mandatory audit partner rotation, however, limits the length of the client-partner relationship and can artificially increase or decrease the market shares of incoming and departing partners, thus making the audit partner＇s within-industry market share an unreliable proxy for auditor industry expertise. Using a sample of banks in Taiwan, we find that audit quality is positively related to an audit partner＇s within-industry market share in the voluntary audit partner rotation regime. However, such a positive relation disappears in the mandatory audit partner rotation regime. Thus, we conclude that mandatory audit partner rotation decouples the link between an audit partner＇s within-industry market share and auditor industry expertise and caution researchers against using an audit partner＇s within-industry market share as a proxy for auditor industry expertise in a mandatory audit partner rotation regime.     

The Determinants and Effects of Clients Following Audit Partners Who Switch Audit Firms

Abstract

We examine the determinants of clients’ decision to follow departing partners to new audit firms and the effect of this decision on the likelihood of financial restatements. Using Taiwanese audit partner turnover data from 1984 to 2010, we find that clients are more likely to follow departing partners when the partners have more clients, longer tenure, and when both lead and concurring partners leave simultaneously. By contrast, clients are more likely to stay with their incumbent audit firms when the firms are one of the Big Four or when only the concurring partners leave. The extended partner tenure due to clients following departing partners, however, does not enhance audit quality. In fact, clients that stay at the incumbent firm experience a significant decrease in the probability of financial restatements in the first year after the audit partners leave, but clients that follow do not.     

Experience of Audit Committee Members and Audit Quality

Abstract

We investigate whether the experience of audit committee members is associated with audit quality. In order to comprehensively analyse the experience of audit committee members, we include audit committee member tenure, age and multiple-directorships in our analysis. Using observations from 2001 to 2012, we undertake analysis on 13,155 firm-year observations and find that all our proxies of audit committee member experience are positively associated with audit fees. A range of additional tests, including using discretionary accruals as an alternative measure of audit quality and differences-in-differences analysis, support our main findings and our results consequently make a number of contributions to both the literature and policy making. One possible policy contribution is that regulators may wish to consider audit committee characteristics representing experience when framing recommendations to improve audit quality and thereby, financial reporting by firms.     

A Statistical Analysis of Reliability of Audit Opinions as Bankruptcy Predictors

This research measures the reliability of audit firms in predicting bankruptcy for United States （US） listed financial institutions. The object of analysis is the going concern opinion （GCO）, widely considered as a bankruptcy warning signal to stakeholders. The sample is composed of 42 US listed financial companies that filed for Chapter 11 between 1998 and 2011. To highlight the differences between bankrupting and healthy firms, a matching sample composed of 42 randomly picked healthy US listed financial companies is collected. We concentrate on financial institutions, whereas the existing literature pays considerably greater attention to the industrial sector. This research imbalance is remarkable and particularly unexpected in the wake of recent financial scandals. Literature points out two main approaches on bankruptcy prediction： （1） purely mathematical; and （2） approaches based on a combination of auditor knowledge, expertise, and experience. The use of data mining techniques allows us to benefit from the best features of both approaches. Statistical tools used in the analysis are： Logit regression, support vector machines （SVMs）, and an AdaBoost meta-algorithm. Findings show a quite low reliability of GCOs in predicting bankruptcy. It is likely that auditors consider further information in supporting their audit opinions, aside from financial-economic ratios. The scant predictive ability of auditors might be due to critical relationships with distressed clients, as suggested by recent literature.     

Audit Quality in Practice A Critical Analysis of the Financial Reporting Council （FRC） Discussion Paper

The efforts by the Financial Reporting Council （FRC） in the United Kingdom （UK） to stimulate audit firms to improve audit quality manifest in its Discussion Paper： Promoting Audit Quality warrant further analysis. The discussion paper identified factors such as audit firm culture, the quality of people, the effectiveness of audit process, and outside factors such as management and audit committee （AC） which can affect level of audit quality in practice. Reporting upon the analysis of responses to the discussion paper, the objective of this study is to analyze views from the respondents about various issues related to audit quality. This study composes of how subject of audit quality is seen in practice, which contributes to our understanding of conditions, events, or processes that can affect audit quality in practice.     

内部控制审计与财务报表审计整合研究

现阶段的企业在规模扩张和发展战略部署实施等过程中都需要具备一套成熟的内部控制机制。财务报表审计和内部控制审计在目的与意义方面基本一致,而将二者融合应用更能够发挥出现代化企业内控管理的实际效果。论文从内部控制审计和财务报表审计的整合可行性分析,总结归纳实践经验,并结合内控审计和财务报表审计的内在关联性给出相应的融合策略,将内部控制审计和财务报表审计的优势整合,帮助企业内控和审计工作实现操作规范化和流程标准化等方面的提升。     

稽核核算背景下财务会计管理措施

稽核制度作为财务会计管理体系的主要组成部分,本质上就是财务会计管理工作的自我检查与审核,保证财务会计数据的真实、合法,因此,稽核核算背景下财务会计管理面临新的问题。论文以稽核核算为着手点,分析财务会计管理工作面临的问题,结合实际情况提出解决措施,以提高财务会计管理的质量。     

高校财务审核刍议

原始凭证是反映经济业务最基本的依据。对其进行审核是会计核算工作的重要组成部分,也是高校财务管理工作的基础。文中针对高校财务审核的内容,分析了高校财务审核监督的现实状况及其原因,并提出了加强审核监督职能的建议。     

Ethics and the Financial and Budgetary Discipline in the Ministry of Defence

This article deals with the relation between ethics and financial and budgetary discipline during economic and social recession in the Czech Republic. We find causes of economic and social recession in the Czech Republic in the loss of democratic and human values. Czech Republic was ranked the 57th place in the Corruption Perceptions index 2013 out of the 177 countries assessed, which is the same result achieved by Bahrain, Croatia, and Namibia. Among the 31 European Union （EU） member states and Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland, the Czech Republic is on the 25th site. Market as well as public sector and public finances should follow unwritten rules of ethics and ethical behavior. Such rules should be followed especially by politicians, officials, soldiers, and businessmen. Do we need ethics in present time？ How is the role of the code of ethics in increasing financial and budgetary discipline in the defence sector？ Is it possible to measure efficiency of the code of ethics for financial and budgetary discipline？ We explain the importance of codes of ethics and formulate essential elements that each code of ethics must contain. Next, we deal with the main rules of both financial and budgetary disciplines. Furthermore, this article offers a comparison of several codes of ethics and describes the main problems in our implementation. In the end, we introduce our draft of Code of Ethics for Economic Service Officer in the Ministry of Defence and talk about possible influences of these codes on the quality of employee＇s performance.     

审计委员会、盈余管理与信息透明度

通过分析审计委员会的设立对盈余管理、信息披露透明度的影响等方面的研究发现,设立审计委员会的公司进行扭亏盈余管理的行为显著要低,信息披露的透明度显著要高。这一研究结果表明,审计委员会的设立在一定程度上提高了公司治理效果,改善了财务报告质量。但审计委员会并没有对配股的盈余管理行为产生作用,这说明审计委员会对财务报告的监督作用较为有限。监管部门还需要设法采取相关措施,进一步提高审计委员会的独立性,更好地发挥审计委员会对财务报告披露质量的监督作用,使之成为维护广大投资人权益的有效治理机制。     

Measuring Audit Firms＇ Intellectual Capital as a Determinant of Audit Quality： A Suggested Model

The intellectual capital is a main source of competing advantage. Many studies developed measure（s） of intellectual capital of industrial and service firms. Few studies have tried to develop a reliable measure of intellectual capital in audit firms. This study extends the current models to provide more insight into the role of intellectual capital in audit firms. The aim of this study is to develop a quantitative model to measure audit firms＇ intellectual capital. The suggested model can be used to explore the relationship between the intellectual capital in audit firms and audit quality. The model combines the main components of intellectual capital （human capital, structural capital, and relational capital）. The suggested model provides a tool that may help to better manage the intellectual capital in audit firms. As this is a theoretical study, a number of hypotheses are presented for testing in the future.     

Do (Fe)Male Auditors Impair Audit Quality? Evidence from Going-Concern Opinions

Recent research indicates that there may be a relationship between the characteristics of the audit engagement partner and audit quality. In this paper, we examine the relationship between audit quality and the presence of a female or male audit engagement partner. We use the likelihood that an auditor issues a going-concern opinion (GCO), conditional on the client's financial situation, as an indicator of audit quality. Using a sample of 7105 financially distressed, private Belgian companies, we find that female auditors are, ceteris paribus, more likely to issue GCOs than male auditors. Our results also show that this effect is stronger when clients are either important (i.e. represent a material portion of the auditor's revenues) or high-risk (i.e. associated with increased uncertainties and risks). Collectively, these results indicate higher audit quality by female auditors.     

Good Corporate Governance （GCG） Mechanism and Audit Delay： An Empirical Study on Companies Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange （IDX） in the Period of 2009-2011

Audit delay is a delay in reporting audit to the Indonesia Stock Exchange （IDX） after the allotted time of 90 days after closing the book. Delay to publish audit report will affect the value of infromation, causing a bad sign for the company. As good corporate governance （GCG） is one way to solve the different interests, practices, and culture, companies implement GCG in an attempt to get more value. This study aims to measure the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on audit delay in companies listed on the IDX in the period of 2009-2011. Variables of GCG mechanism consist of institutional ownership, number of audit committee members, and the percentage of independent commissioners. Purposive sampling method is used in sample selection procedure. Samples comprise 42 companies listed on the IDX. The simultaneous test results show that all the variables have a significant influence on audit delay. By the partial test, number of audit committee members has significantly affected audit delay, while institutional ownership and independent commissioners have no significant effect on audit delay. This study is limited to use only three variables to study their influence on audit delay in the reseach period of only three years.     

Audit Committee Attributes on Audit Fees： The Impact of Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance （MCCG） 2007

The evolution of corporate governance has created a competitive environment among the companies to catch the attention of investor＇s confidence. This paper aims to examine the relationship between the audit committee attributes and the audit fees. Specifically, this paper aims to examine the effects of audit committee expertise （number of financial-related director＇s trainings and experience） on audit fees. The data are obtained from annual reports of the population of Bursa Malaysia listed companies for both Main and Ace markets in year 2008. The results show that audit committee size is significant and has a positive association with audit fees. However, audit committee＇s financial related training is significant and has a negative association with audit fees. These results suggest that financial training of audit committee could have an impact on the lower audit fees. However, audit committee expertise is significant and has a positive association with audit fees. This suggests that financial-related training is needed in order to enhance the expertise of audit committee members.     

From risk society to audit society

Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, the 2008 banking crisis occurred in an ultra-regulated environment. Legislative and regulatory financial-security regimes have in fact multiplied in recent years. The economic crisis is accelerating the transition of the risk society towards the audit society. But the G20 （Group of Twenty） declarations in Washington and London also reveal a managerial utopia： the march towards a society of confidence or harmony that would make controls superfluous. In this context, the article seeks to call upon philosophical, sociological and managerial references to risk, from Foucault to Power by way of Beck, Giddens ＆ Ewald, to shed light on the official declarations of the leaders of the world＇s main economies. The documentary corpus examined includes all the G20 works published between November 8, 2008 （preparation for the Washington Summit） and April 2, 2009 （conclusions of the London Summit）. The political philosophy underlying the G20＇s works remains fundamentally liberal, even though saving the worldwide market economy involves established security systems as well as self-control and control of others. In the end, the leaders do not decide between reinforcing the existing tools and inventing new systems. The updating of security technologies is meant to serve the preservation of the capitalist managerial utopia. This gives rise to a new variant of Beck＇s risk-society paradigm, too often confined to environmental threats alone, in three phases： （1） The crisis is a consequence of financial modernity and in particular of the inefficiency of regulation in the face of growing sophistication in techniques; （2） To restore confidence, the states and international institutions want, paradoxically, both to reinforce regulation and promote flexibility; （3） Thereupon, flexi-security controlled by worldwide economic governance characterizes the second financial modernity.     

试论企业财务审计监督的问题与策略

在现代化社会经济的发展中,企业生产经营规模在不断扩大,企业财务审计工作的重要性日益突显出来,财务审计是财务监督管理工作中的关键,直接关系着企业的生产和经营。论文主要对企业财务审计监督的问题与策略进行了研究。     

风险管理审计存在的若干问题探析

随着我国市场经济的发展,内部审计为了适应企业不断发展的要求,其审计目标不断演变。内部审计的发展大致经历了3个阶段：以防弊纠错为主的财务审计阶段,为满足管理需要的管理审计阶段及以风险为导向的风险管理审计阶段。风险导向审计于21世纪初从国外引进我国,发展时间较短,其风险管理体系尚需不断究善,因此,在风险管理审计中还存在很多问题。文章主要对我国目前的风险管理审计中存在的问题进行了分析。