强化责任意识提升审计执行力

本文结合工作实践,从提升科级干部履职能力,有效执行能力,务实创新三个角度分别阐述审计干部强化责任意识的重要意义及有效途径。     

The Unintended Consequences of the Frequency of PCAOB Inspection

After more than 50 years of self‐regulation of the US auditing profession, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) as a quasi‐governmental entity with statutory authority to inspect accounting firms that audit public clients. The frequency of this inspection is annual or triennial, based upon the number of public clients the firm audits. We examine the effects of these two levels of inspection frequency on financial reporting quality and audit fees for clients of small and midsize public accounting firms. Our findings provide evidence of significantly higher audit quality and audit fees for clients of annually inspected firms relative to clients of triennially inspected firms. These findings are robust to auditor‐client alignment analyses, propensity score matching, time‐series analyses, examination of firms that have changed from triennial to annual inspection, and particular examination of firms with inspection deficiencies. Overall, our study suggests that the two‐tier frequency system of PCAOB inspection may have also resulted in two‐tier audit quality and audit fee systems for small and midsize public accounting firms, with more frequent inspection leading to more rigorous and informed auditor decisions. We discuss the implications of our results for the Board and the profession at large.     

Balance sheet conservatism and audit reporting conservatism

Financial reports are prepared on a going‐concern (GC) basis rather than a liquidation basis even when companies are highly distressed. This allows distressed companies to report book values of assets that greatly exceed their liquidation values, implying a lack of conservatism in the balance sheet. We argue that auditors issue going‐concern opinions in order to warn investors about this lack of balance sheet conservatism. This argument leads to two testable hypotheses. First, for companies that are at risk of bankruptcy, auditors are more likely to issue GC opinions when the book values of assets under the GC assumption are high relative to the expected liquidation values of assets (i.e., when the GC assumption causes the balance sheet to lack conservatism). Second, for companies that enter bankruptcy, the issuance of a prior GC opinion has predictive information content with respect to the wedge between the book values of assets and the future liquidation values of those same assets. Our results strongly support both hypotheses. The findings are important because they indicate that conservative audit reporting helps to compensate for a lack of conservatism in the balance sheet, which arises because the GC assumption permits the book values of assets to exceed their liquidation values.     

外部审计师依赖内部审计功能的研究综述

在外部审计师依赖内部审计功能的研究中,国内外学者认为环境因素会影响内部审计的规模和质量,进而影响外部审计师依赖内部审计的功能。不少学者认为内部审计作为管理培训的会计风险、内部审计资源的安排和调整所产生的固有风险等因素都会影响外部审计师依赖内部审计的程度。另有学者认为外部审计师依赖内部审计的功能主要受内部审计外包的调整、非审计服务和客户的压力、内部审计资源调整等因素的影响。在今后的研究中应着重考虑治理质量因素的相互作用对外部审计师的影响和内部审计资源的影响因素以及这些因素如何影响外部审计的可靠性等方面。     

转型国家政府审计功能探讨——来自罗马尼亚的经验

罗马尼亚在国家转型期间面临着严重腐败、贫富差距、司法改革等问题,为了加入欧盟,罗马尼亚在这些方面进行了卓有成效的改革。在加强监督和控制的国家治理中,执行公共外部审计的审计院起到了很大的推动作用。在借鉴欧盟法的基础上,罗马尼亚审计院在法律地位、组织框架、职权范围上都得以提高和完善,审计院对国家治理产生重要影响,对政府部门及其他公共部门的监督和控制效率、效果得到很大提高。我国可以借鉴其经验,从提高审计署法律地位和加强外部审计与内部审计协调两个方面强化审计署在国家治理中的功能。     

上市公司内部审计独立性的现状分析

独立性是内部审计的灵魂,是决定内部审计职能能否得到充分发挥和内部审计目标能否实现的关键因素。目前,我国上市公司内部审计部门主要隶属于董事会、审计委员会和总经理,并且隶属于审计委员会已经成为主流态势,独立性较高。内部审计独立性因上市公司的财务状况、控制人性质、所处行业、所在地区不同呈现出较为明显的差异。     

Association Between Independent Auditor Fees and Firm Value： A Study of Brazilian Public Companies

This article investigates the relationship between fees for audit and non-audit services with Tobin＇s Q. Using a sample of Brazilian public companies in the period from 2009 to 2011, we estimate the association between Tobin＇s Q and the auditors＇ remuneration scaled by total assets. Additionally, to strengthen the conclusions, we present a second model with the remuneration of the auditors in absolute terms. The results suggest a significant relationship between Tobin＇s Q and audit and non-audit fees, positive and negative, respectively. Specifically, increases in audit fees and non-audit fees respectively increase and decrease the Tobin＇s Q of the audited company. The results of this study have important implications for those interested in good corporate governance practices. Managers and board members concerned with value carefully evaluate the remuneration and nature of services creation, when engaging independent auditors, should provided.     

Optimal penalty and accounting policy

This study considers risky investment projects under adverse selection and examines optimal penalties for erroneous auditing reports to maximize social welfare. These penalties give firms an incentive to choose accounting policies that maximize social welfare. We characterize the optimal penalties such that efficient firms choose an aggressive accounting policy and inefficient firms choose a conservative accounting policy.     

推进我国企业内部审计发展的思考

本文深刻分析了当前我国企业内部审计发展中存在的主要问题,提出了推进我国内部审计发展的具体措施。