scholarly journals Whether Audit Committee Financial Expertise Is the Only Relevant Expertise: A Review of Audit Committee Expertise and Timeliness of Financial Reporting

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Rabea Baatwah ◽  
Zalailah Salleh ◽  
Norsiah Ahmad

This study reviews the literature on audit committee expertise and financial reporting timeliness. Financial reporting timeliness and audit committee expertise are two areas of research gaining the attention of a large number of stakeholders because they contribute to the reliability and the  relevancy of financial reporting. Indeed, the focus of this review is primarily on the recent developments in the pertinent literature in order to show the limitations of such research and encourage future research to overcome these limitations. By also looking at the development of the audit committee expertise literature, this study concludes that (1) like most audit committee literature, financial reporting timeliness literature continues to assume the absence of the contribution of expertise other than financial expertise, and ignore the role of audit committee chair; (2) most of this literature fails to find a significant effect because it ignores the interaction among corporate governance mechanisms. Accordingly, this study posits that ignoring the issues raised in such research by future research would lead to major mistakes in reforms relating to how the quality of financial reporting can be enhanced.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Saeed Rabea Baatwah ◽  
Norsiah Ahmad ◽  
Zalailah Salleh

This study examines whether audit committee chair with financial expertise enhances the audit committee role in financial reporting quality in emerging market. We investigate this influence by employing the direct effect and moderating effect of audit committee chair with financial expertise on financial reporting timeliness. By using Omani data and the panel data method for two proxies for financial reporting timeliness, we find that audit committee chair with financial expertise enhances the timeliness of financial reporting through making the disclosure of annual reports timely. Further, we report evidence showing that both accounting and nonaccounting financial expertise on the audit committee have a positive and significant influence on the timeliness of financial reporting. We also document that the association between financial expertise and the timeliness of financial reporting is more pronounced when the chair of the audit committee has accounting expertise. This study is among the comprehensive evidence prove that audit committee chair with accounting expertise contributes to the quality of financial reporting in emerging market.


10.26458/1743 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Luminita Ionescu

Accounting errors and fraud are common in most businesses, but there is a difference between fraud and misinterpretation of communication or accounting regulations. The role of management in preventing fraud becomes important in the last decades and the importance of auditing in curbing corruption is increasingly revealed. There is a strong connection between fraud and corruption, accelerated by electronic systems and modern platforms.The most recent developments tend to confirm that external auditing is curbing corruption, due to international accounting and auditing standards at national and regional levels. Thus, a better implementation of accounting standards and high quality of external control could prevent errors and fraud in accounting, and reduce corruption, as well.The aim of this paper is to present some particular aspects of errors and fraud in accounting, and how external audit could ensure accuracy and accountability in financial reporting. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10517
Author(s):  
Haeyoung Ryu ◽  
Soo-Joon Chae ◽  
Bomi Song

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) involves multiple activities and is influenced by the cultural and legal environment of the country in which a firm is located. This study examines the role of audit committees’ (AC) financial expertise in the relationship between CSR and the earnings quality of Korean firms with high levels of CSR. Using a multivariate analysis, it investigates whether the ACs that include members with accounting expertise, finance expertise, or supervisory expertise individually affect a firm’s decision making. It also examines how ACs with diverse expertise contribute toward improving the financial reporting quality of firms with high levels of CSR. The results demonstrate that when there is a certified accountant in the AC of a firm that practices CSR based on ethical motivation, the earnings management through discretionary accruals is more strictly controlled. This is more effective when the AC comprises members with accounting and non-accounting expertise. This finding implies that the AC plays a positive role in improving the accounting information quality of firms with CSR excellence. Moreover, while the role of accounting experts in the AC is important for maintaining high earnings quality, combining other types of expertise creates synergy.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Nazlia Jamil ◽  
Sherliza Puat Nelson

Financial reporting quality has been under scrutiny especially after the collapse of major companies. The main objective of this study is to investigate the audit committee’s effectiveness on the financial reporting quality among the Malaysian GLCs following the transformation program. In particular, the study examined the impact of audit committee characteristics (independence, size, frequency of meeting and financial expertise) on earnings management in periods prior to and following the transformation program (2003-2009). As of 31 December 2010, there were 33 public-listed companies categorized as Government-Linked Companies (GLC Transformation Policy, 2010) and there were 20 firms that have complete data that resulted in the total number of firm-year observations to 120 for six years (years 2003-2009).  Results show that the magnitude of earnings management as proxy of financial reporting quality is influenced by the audit committee independence. Agency theory was applied to explain audit committee, as a monitoring mechanism as well as reducing agency costs via gaining competitive advantage in knowledge, skills, and expertise towards financial reporting quality. The study is important as it provides additional knowledge about the impact of audit committees effectiveness on reducing the earnings management, and assist practitioners, policymakers and regulators such as Malaysian Institute of Accountants, Securities Commission and government to determine ways to enhance audit committees effectiveness and improve the financial reporting of GLCs, as well as improving the quality of the accounting profession.     


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Atef Oussii ◽  
Neila Boulila Taktak

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any relationship between the effectiveness of an audit committee and the financial reporting timeliness of Tunisian listed companies as proxied by external audit delay (AD). Analysis focuses on five audit committee characteristics: authority, financial expertise, independence, size and diligence. Design/methodology/approach Empirical tests address 162 firm-year observations drawn from Tunisian listed companies during 2011-2013. Findings Multivariate analyses indicate that audit committees with members who have financial expertise are significantly associated with shorter AD. Thus, the results suggest that audit committee financial expertise contributes to the improvement of financial statements’ timeliness. Research limitations/implications The audit committee attributes examined in this study were based on DeZoort et al. (2002) framework. There could be other aspects of audit committee effectiveness such as audit committee tenure and audit committee chair characteristics, which were not addressed in the present study. Thus, future research may consider and examine these other components of audit committee effectiveness. Practical implications Findings have managerial implications. Companies can re-look into how to further improve audit committee composition in order to enhance the timeliness of financial reporting. The issues of audit committee effectiveness and timely reporting also affect regulators and policy makers since they need to play a role in the establishment of effective audit committees and the improvement of financial reporting timeliness. Originality/value This study is one of few that have examined the impact of audit committee effectiveness on ADs in an emerging market country. Findings lend credence to the belief that audit committee members’ financial expertise enhances the quality of financial reporting by firms in a North African market criticized for the lack of maturity of its corporate governance system (Klibi, 2015; Fitch Ratings, 2009).


Author(s):  
Ali Altuğ Biçer ◽  
Imad Mohamed Feneir

The main reasons for corporate participation in environmental and social disclosure are stability, development, and continuity through participation in protecting the environment and optimizing the use of available resources. As well as the company practices and participation in society of the most important means to create a good image of the company in the community. There is a rise demand for companies to take accountability for their environmental and societal impacts. A core role of the Audit Committee (AC) is to help the board of directors in overseeing the company's reporting policy and oversees the quality of financial reporting in the company. This study examined the impact of audit committee characteristics on the level of environmental and social disclosures in listed banks in Borsa Istanbul. The results of the study showed that there is no statistically significant relationship between the characteristics of the audit committee and the environmental and social disclosures. Consequently, these characteristics have no effect on the volume or type of disclosure and their inability to predict them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-122
Author(s):  
Citrawati Jatiningrum ◽  
Fauzi Fauzi ◽  
Rita Irviani ◽  
Mujiyati Mujiyati ◽  
Shahanif Hasan

Audit committees are one of Corporate Governance (CG) mechanisms which are the significant factor in improving its role in inhibiting financial statement fraud (Choi, Jeon & Park, 2004; Habbash, 2010; Soliman & Ragab, 2014). Quality of the Financial Statement emphasised as being in compliance with accounting standards accepted in general, the disclosure scale, and reported numbers although this is not merely a task for the IFRS (Cascino & Gassen, 2010). In recent years, the issue of IFRS adoption in developed and developing countries have been a great deal of attention from many researchers. However, regarding the relationship between the Audit Committee and Quality of Financial Statement with IFRS requirements is still questioning. In fact, the results obtained from some previous researches are inconsistent. Therefore, the objectives in this study are aims to investigate whether post the mandatory IFRS adoption in Malaysia would limit earnings management practice in highlights of governance monitoring on the quality of financial reporting in this environment. This paper gives some evidence: 1) The effect of pre- and post IFRS adoption in Malaysia in the relationship between the Audit Committee and earnings management adoption. 2) examine the differences of the level earnings management on two periods of IFRS adoption in Malaysia. Quality of Financial statement in this study was measured by the level of earnings management with discretional accrual (DA) proxy. The audit committee variable measured by Audit Committee Independence (ACIND), Audit Committee Financial Expertise (ACFEX), Audit Committee Meeting (ACMEET), Audit Committee Size (ACSIZE) and control variable in this study using Board Size (BRDSIZE) and Firm Leverage (FRMLEV). The sample of this study including the two main time periods, there are pre-IFRS adoption and post-IFRS adoption. Using 81 listed companies in Malaysia as a sample, with 567 observations is analysed from 2009 to 2015 (7 years observations) with purposive judgement sampling selection. For seven years, a total of 567 observations is analysed. The pre- IFRS adoption period was tested from 2009 through 2011, and the post-IFRS adoption was tested from 2012 through the end of 2015. The findings in this study with multiplied regression analysis revealed that the hypothesis test in a period of pre- and post IFRS adoption ACFEX and FIRMLEV statistically were significance at 5% level. It means that Audit Committee Financial Expertise (ACFEX) have a significant effect on earnings management practise. According to the result found in the post IFRS adoption period, Audit Committee Meeting (ACMEET) is significant. It means that the frequency of audit committee meetings could be decreasing the level of discretionary accrual. The evidence also unveils both of ACIND and ACSIZE at 5 % level p-value is not significant. The most important result finding on pre- and post period of IFRS adoption in Malaysia provide evidence that based on the statistically significant was upward or the relation more significantly. However, this study also reported with paired sampled test analysis there was no significant difference between the level of earnings management in pre- and post period the adoption of IFRS in Malaysia at 5% level significance.  An important contribution this study has the impact on practices and has implications useful for regulators. The study provides empirical evidence that a relationship between the audit committee and earnings management in the case of IFRS adoption. In contributing to the strength of governance quality and FRQ need to be revisited, especially after mandatory IFRS adoption. Though the audit committee and audit quality are implicitly mentioned in the CG act, it is recommended that formulates specific rules relating to the quality of Financial Reporting. In this regard, it is suggested that company reports would be presented high quality in financial reporting to provide appropriate responses to recommendations made in the reports. Finally, these findings suggest that CG practices in Malaysian that have its own peculiar characteristics compared to other emerging economies.      


Author(s):  
Zaitul Zaitul

This study aims to investigate the relationship between audit committee and audit change in listed Indonesia Company. We use four variables for audit committee that is independence, size, financial expertise and activity. Besides, this study also uses three control variables (ROA, LEV, and SIZE). By using the Binary Logic Model (BLM) with panel data for 654 observation, we find that all hypotheses are rejected which means that there is no role of audit committee in determining the audit change. However, big and company with the higher leverage is less likely to change audit, firm. This finding has a practical and theoretical implication. For practical implication, regulator or government agent can increase the financial reporting quality by improving the role of audit committee by changing related mechanism.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul N. Tanyi ◽  
David B. Smith

SUMMARY We investigate how the number of audit committee chair positions and other audit committee financial expertise positions held by the audit committee chairman and the audit committee financial experts affects their ability to oversee a company's financial reporting process. We argue that these two audit committee roles are vital to the functioning of the audit committee and that their over commitment affects audit committee oversight and the firm's financial reporting quality. We observe a significant negative association between financial reporting quality and the number of audit committee chair positions and other audit committee financial expertise positions held by the audit committee chairman. We also find a significant negative association between financial reporting quality and the number of audit committee chair positions and other audit committee financial expertise positions held by audit committee financial experts. Firms with busy audit committee chairs or busy financial experts have significantly higher levels of abnormal accruals, and are more likely to meet or beat earnings benchmarks, which is consistent with the busyness hypothesis. This adverse effect, nonetheless, does not extend to nonaudit committee chairs and nonaudit committee financial experts. We interpret these results to indicate that the busyness of the audit committee chair and financial expert weakens the monitoring and oversight role that audit committees play in the financial reporting process.


2002 ◽  
Vol 77 (s-1) ◽  
pp. 139-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda McDaniel ◽  
Roger D. Martin ◽  
Laureen A. Maines

Audit committees evaluate financial reporting quality as part of their corporate oversight responsibilities. Given this responsibility, the national stock exchanges now require all audit committee members to be financially literate and at least one member to have financial expertise. In light of recent debates over this requirement, we provide evidence on how experts and literates differ in their evaluations of financial reporting quality. Results suggest that experts' evaluations of financial reporting quality are more strongly associated with their assessments of characteristics underlying reporting quality (e.g., relevance) espoused in Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 2's framework than literates' evaluations. Additionally, literates are more likely than experts to identify concerns about reporting treatments for business activities that are prominent in the business press or are distinguished by their nonrecurring nature, while experts are more likely to raise concerns about reporting treatments for less prominent, recurring activities. This same pattern occurs in the ratings of the quality of the reporting treatments for specific financial statement items with respect to elements underlying reporting quality (e.g., neutrality); literates (experts) assess the quality elements for the reporting treatments of prominent and nonrecurring items (less prominent and recurring items) comparatively lower than experts (literates). These results suggest that including financial experts on audit committees is likely to change the structure and focus of audit committee discussions about financial reporting quality, and may affect the committee's overall assessment of the quality of a company's financial reports.


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