针对房产开发企业及物业管理的理性维权探讨

我国房产开发企业及物业管理存在很多侵害业主权益的问题。这一问题已经成为经济活动中的普遍现象。如果政府有关部门和社会不给予足够重视,并对业主与业主委员会理性维权加以正确引导,必将引起社会的不安定因素,这与创建和谐社会、宜居城市的发展主题背道而驰。因此,全社会都应营造业主与业主委员会理性维权的社会氛围,促进社区和谐、建设美好家园。     

Auditors' Affirmations of Compliance with IFRS around the World: An Exploratory Study*

It is widely believed that international financial reporting standards (IFRS) have been adopted in many countries, at least for the consolidated reporting of listed companies. However, in nearly all cases, what the rules require is some national or supranational version of IFRS. This might create problems for investor confidence and comparability. We examine what companies and auditors report concerning compliance with IFRS, focusing on the first full year of IFRS reporting by companies in the stock market indices of four major European countries and Australia. We find that, even when companies were complying with IFRS, they were generally not saying so, which seems to miss part of the point of the 35‐year project on international harmonization. In a small number of cases, auditors provided dual reports: on full IFRS in addition to the mandated reference to national GAAP where the latter corresponds with full IFRS. These cases were found only in Germany and the United Kingdom, and mainly related to companies that filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as foreign private issuers. We propose explanations for the general lack of dual reports and for the exceptions. We call for widespread adoption of dual reporting where a plain report on IFRS is not yet possible.     

持续经营有重大疑虑审计意见表达方式实证研究

从理论上讲,审计师在出具持续经营有重大疑虑审计意见时,由于受到经济依赖与审计风险的双重影响,可能存在变通行为。非参数检验结果表明:一方面,持续经营有重大疑虑审计意见的明确表达样本组与隐含表达样本组之间,在持续经营风险上存在显著差异,明确表达样本组的持续经营风险显著地高于隐含表达样本组;另一方面,隐含表达样本组审计师对客户公司的经济依赖显著地高于明确表达样本组。可以推论:审计师进行持续经营有重大疑虑审计意见决策,具体选择明确表达还是隐含表达时,综合权衡了对客户经济依赖和客户持续经营风险。     

Are fully independent audit committees really necessary?

Accounting scandals and concerns about the quality of financial statements have led to many calls for improved audit committee effectiveness. Prior research indicates that audit committee independence is positively related to effective oversight of the financial reporting process. Unfortunately, prior research has not provided an answer as to how much independence on the audit committee is enough. This is an important unanswered question because while Section 301 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) currently requires all listed companies to maintain an audit committee that is 100% independent there has been much debate regarding easing the SOX requirements for smaller and foreign companies. In this paper we examine whether the regulatory requirements of a completely independent audit committee are necessary to obtain the monitoring benefits related to audit committee independence that have been documented in prior literature. Our results suggest that the benefits of audit committee independence are consistently achieved only when the audit committee is completely independent. These results provide support for the SOX requirement of 100% independent audit committees.     

An empirical analysis of audit fee price competition after the Korean 1999 Omnibus Cartel Repeal Act

This study examines the audit service market in Korea after the 1999 Omnibus Cartel Repeal Act to determine if increased competition has led to audit fee discounting. Until 19 December 2001, when the Korean government enacted The Financial Supervisory Regulations, researchers could not address questions related to price competition in the Korean audit market due to data limitations. The new regulations allow researchers to examine audit effort for the first time because both audit hours and audit fees are now recommended disclosures. We use audit fee data of Korean companies for the 6-year period 1999–2004, and find evidence that total audit fees paid have been increasing but audit fees per hour have been decreasing. We also find that Big 5 auditing firms’ fees per hour are significantly lower than non-Big 5 auditing firms and are decreasing across time. These price pressures should be of concern to regulators and investors because prior research has demonstrated that price competition leads to discounting, which can result in unrealistically low audit fees and poor audit quality. Finally, as in previous research, we also find discounting of initial audit engagements in the Korean market.     

上市公司审计委员会的有效性研究——基于审计收费角度的考察

本文从上市公司设立审计委员会前后审计费用变化的角度,间接考察了审计委员会在改善内部控制、保证财务报告质量、减少违规与舞弊等方面的治理效率。回归结果表明,设立审计委员会的上市公司支付的审计费用低于未设立审计委员会的上市公司;上市公司设立审计委员会的当年少于前一年支付的审计费用。本文的研究表明,审计委员会的设立在一定程度上降低了外部审计的控制风险,对审计委员会的信任也减少了一定的审计程序,降低了审计成本,这将促使外部审计师降低审计收费。     

Do corporate governance mechanisms affect cash dividends? An empirical investigation of UK firms

The study examines whether corporate governance mechanisms and the compliance with good governance practice are related to cash dividends. In particular, the study assesses the effect of institutional ownership and board structure on the decision to pay cash dividends. A study on UK firms is interesting because firms are expected to voluntarily structure governance mechanisms based on their own needs. We find that institutional owners positively affect cash dividend payments, suggesting that UK institutions are effective in forcing firms to disgorge cash. There is limited evidence that independent directors affect the cash dividends. The results also show that firm specifics affect the cash dividends, namely, business risk, firm size, and leverage ratio. The results are consistent across several robustness checks.     

Audit report information content and the provision of non-audit services: Evidence from Spanish lending decisions

This study examines whether auditor economic independence affects the information content of going concern audit reports in the European setting. We conduct an experiment where 80 experienced Spanish loan officers from the second largest European commercial bank review a loan request under two lending scenarios: (1) a potential borrower receiving an unqualified but modified going concern opinion, and (2) a potential borrower receiving a qualified going concern opinion. Auditor economic independence, measured by the provision of non-audit services (NAS), is manipulated (absence vs. presence of significant NAS). We find that a qualified going concern audit report is interpreted as a primary warning signal (death penalty). However, the provision of NAS acts as a second order mechanism that only activates loan officers’ professional skepticism in the case of an unqualified but modified going concern report scenario. Therefore, we find evidence suggesting that the potential negative impact of a perceived lack of auditor independence depends on the nature of the audit report. Our findings have important implications for the European regulator, which is currently considering establishing an auditor independence regulation framework similar to that in the United States of America.     

转移支付优化审计策略研究——以事权和支出责任相适应改革为背景

中央与地方财权与事权的不对称使转移支付制度成为实现地方政府财力与事权匹配的基本手段,以弥补政府间纵向财政失衡和横向财政失衡。但目前我国财政转移支付因体制的诱致性变迁、设计理念缺陷、事权与支出责任分离等原因,存在效能不彰、运行效率漏损、结构不合理、规范性水平低、程序规制失范等问题。在全面深化财税体制改革下,国家审计机关可以发挥＆quot;免疫系统＆quot;功能和国家治理作用,对转移支付从审计内容、审计导向、资金流向等方面提升审计层次,把问效、问绩、问责贯穿转移支付审计过程始终,关注转移支付资金的安全性、效率性、经济性,实现政府支出责任随事权转移、各级政府财力与事权相匹配,优化转移支付,完善政府治理。     

政府绩效审计“阶梯型”评价模式的构建与应用——以BRT公共交通投资项目为例

构建一套政府公共交通投资项目绩效审计评价模式是提高政府公共交通投资项目绩效审计效率和审计质量的关键,然而目前业界尚未对此形成统一认识。论文基于平衡计分卡理论从资源配置、职能行使、潜力发挥和贡献效益四个维度,构建了“阶梯形”政府公共交通投资项目绩效审计评价模式,并通过模糊评价对某市BRT项目调研数据对该模式进行了验证。