The Effects of Internal Audit Outsourcing on Perceived External Auditor Independence

1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (s-1) ◽  
pp. 7-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Jordan Lowe ◽  
Marshall A. Geiger ◽  
Kurt Pany
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Auditor Independence ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Financial Statement Audit ◽  
Study Support ◽  
External Auditor ◽  
Management Functions

The accounting profession is currently attempting to redefine its role and is expanding the types of services provided. With this expansion, however, comes a concern regarding the potential lack of independence between the auditor and the client requesting these services. This exploratory study examines whether the outsourcing of the internal audit function to the company's external auditor affects financial statement users' perceptions of auditor independence oand financial statement reliability, as well as loan decisions. The overall objective of this study is to assess reactions to various internal-audit outsourcing arrangements, and in doing so, to evaluate the accounting profession's current position regarding the acceptability of performing this type of “extended audit service” to audit clients. Results indicate significant differences across the various outsourcing groups involving the company's external auditor and the nonoutsourced group. Specifically, auditor performance of management functions had a significantly negative impact on users' perceptions of auditor independence and financial statement reliability, and resulted in the lowest percentage of loan approvals. However, the separation of audit-firm staff performing the outsourced internal audit from those performing the financial statement audit had a significantly positive impact on financial statement users' perceptions and loan approvals. The findings of this study support the AICPA's current position on internal audit outsourcing and also suggest that a requirement be established that provides a distinct separation of staff between a CPA firm's internal and external audit teams.

scholarly journals ¿Son las características del comité de auditoría importantes para el presupuesto de auditoría interna en empresas de Malasia?

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Redhwan Al-Dhamari ◽  
Almahdi Almagdoub ◽  
Bakr Al-Gamrh
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Internal Governance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Recent Policy

<p class="Default"><span lang="EN-US">An audit committee is viewed as an essential self-regulatory internal governance instrument that is expected to provide an oversight role over the entire process of financial reporting. An internal audit is also one of the corporate governance cornerstones that is essential for the effective monitoring of the operating performance of internal control. To ensure its effectiveness, the audit committee monitors the resources available to the internal audit, and internal control functions should be directly reported to the audit committee. This study analyses the effect of audit committee characteristics on internal audit budget in Malaysia, where data on internal audit budget is available and how well audit committee monitors the internal audit function is questionable. Our study also opens the door to an unanswered question, that is, whether an audit committee index is related to internal audit budget. Data of 96 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia for a three-year period, 2012-2014, was utilized to achieve this end. The regression results show that audit committee meeting and index are significantly and positively associated with internal audit budget. They also indicate that audit committee tenure has a significant and negative impact on internal audit budget. The findings of the study support the recent policy initiatives in relation to audit committee and internal audit. They also serve as a wake-up call to policy makers in requiring more committed and skilled members on the audit committee.</span></p>

Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation and Audit Quality

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakwoon Kim ◽  
Hyoik Lee ◽  
Jong Eun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Auditor Independence ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Going Concern ◽  
Financial Statement Audit ◽  
Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation ◽  
First Time

Recently, regulators and policy makers who witnessed the global financial crisis during 20072009 began considering a variety of ways to enhance auditor independence and financial reporting quality, ultimately aiming at investor protection. Since the enactment of the SarbanesOxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation (MAFR) requirement has once again received significant attention from regulators and policy makers around the world, including the European Union (EU) and the U.S. Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In this paper, we investigate whether MAFR enhances audit quality in Korea. We find that under MAFR, newly rotated auditors are more likely to issue first-time going-concern audit opinions to financially distressed firms during their initial (first-year) financial statement audit compared with under the Voluntary Audit Firm Change (VAFC). Moreover, firms audited by mandatorily rotated new auditors have less discretionary accruals and higher accrual quality than those audited by voluntarily switched new auditors during the initial audit engagement. These results of earnings quality are more pronounced for firms that received a first-time going-concern audit opinion during the initial financial statement audit under MAFR. Taken together, the findings suggest that MAFR produces better audit quality than the VAFC. Further, our study provides implications for regulators and policy makers of countries considering the adoption of MAFR.

scholarly journals Measuring Quality Determinants of Financial Statements

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 884-893
Author(s):  
Widya Andelina ◽  
Aprih Santoso
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
The Impact

The research aims to study the impact of the role of internal audit, the application of regional accounting systems, and human resource competencies on the quality of financial statements. A sample of 141 employees according to the purposive sampling method and by distributing questionnaires. It turned out that the questionnaire returned was only from 138 employees. Data analyzed through moderate regression analysis (MRA) from the SPSS program. The results of the study stated that the role of internal audit has a negative impact on the quality of financial statements, the application of regional accounting systems and human resource competencies have a positive impact on the quality of financial statements

scholarly journals Pengaruh Audit Internal, Struktur Modal, Dan Good Corporate Governance Terhadap Kinerja Keuangan

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 2001-2019
Author(s):  
Amara Meidiana ◽  
Erinos NR
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Capital Structure ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Good Corporate Governance ◽  
Significant Negative Impact

Economic growth according to business field said that financial sector in 2016 to 2018 were decreased year by year. It indicates that there was a financial performance’s decline in financial sector’s companies. In order to increase financial performance, we need to find out factors that could accelerate financial performance’s potential. Internal audit, capital structure, and good corporate governance are independent variables that will be tested in this research for their impacts on financial performance. This research uses ROA, ROE, & NPM combination as internal audit’s proxies and DAR, DER, & LDER as capital structure’s proxies which are still minor in prior researchs. The purpose of this research is to test how far internal audit, capital structure, and good corporate governance could affect financial performance partially. This research was tested on financial sector’s companies that listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2016 to 2018 with 129 samples using purposive sampling method with judgment. The results of this research proved that internal audit had insignificant positive impact on financial performance, capital structure had significant negative impact on financial performance, while good corporate governance had significant positive impact on financial performance with significant level 0,005 which is had not reach the maximum standard 0,05 yet.

Characteristics of the internal audit and external audit hours: evidence from S. Korea

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 629-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho-Young Lee ◽  
Hyun-Young Park
Keyword(s):  
Internal Audit ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
External Audit ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
External Auditors ◽  
Audit Efficiency ◽  
Financial Statement Audit ◽  
Legal Expertise ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Using 5,055 sample firm-years in Korea between 2009 and 2013, this paper aims to examine the association between the characteristics of the internal audit and the number of external audit hours as a proxy for audit efficiency. Design/methodology/approach This study is motivated by the International Standard on Auditing No. 610: “Using the work of internal auditors”. This auditing standard guides external auditors in using the work of internal auditors to obtain audit evidence and consult internal auditors for direct assistance. The authors expect that external audit efficiency will increase when the work of competent internal auditors is used. Findings The authors find that the number of internal auditors relative to the number of employees is associated with the number of external audit hours. This result suggests that the greater the availability of internal auditors, the greater their contribution will be to the financial statement audit and the more efficient the audit. The authors find evidence that external auditors use the work of internal auditors with accounting and legal expertise to improve audit efficiency. They also find some evidence that the work of internal auditors with greater availability is more effective during initial external audit engagements. Originality/value This study adds to the extant literature on the contributions of internal auditors to external audits by using archival data and by measuring audit effort using a large database of audit hours. In addition, our findings have practical implications for firms and external auditors who are evaluating the role and value of using the work of internal auditors. The authors also believe that the findings will be of interest to regulators or auditing standards boards.

The Effects of Internal Audit Outsourcing on Perceived External Auditor Independence

1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 7-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Jordan Lowe ◽  
Marshall A. Geiger ◽  
Kurt Pany
Keyword(s):  
Internal Audit ◽  
Auditor Independence ◽  
External Auditor

Corporate Governance, Audit Quality, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Evidence from Internal Audit Outsourcing

2007 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Abbott ◽  
Susan Parker ◽  
Gary F. Peters ◽  
Dasaratha V. Rama
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Auditor Independence ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
External Audit ◽  
Internal Auditor ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley ◽  
External Auditor ◽  
Audit Activity

This study extends current literature related to nonaudit services by investigating internal audit outsourcing to the external auditor. We posit that certain types of internal audit outsourcing (i.e., those which are nonroutine, and thus tend to be nonrecurring in nature) are unlikely to lead to economic bonding, while offering significant potential for improvements in audit coverage and scope when provided by the external auditor. Alternatively, outsourcing routine internal audit tasks is more likely to lead to economic bonding, as well as potentially threatening internal auditor independence. Our results are consistent with firms with independent, active, and expert audit committees being less likely to outsource routine internal auditing activities to the external auditor. However, the outsourcing of nonroutine internal audit activities such as special projects and EDP consulting are not negatively related to effective audit committees. Additionally, outsourcing of either type of internal audit activity to an outside service provider other than the external auditor is not related to effective audit committees. Collectively, we interpret these findings as supportive of an effective audit committee's ability to monitor the sourcing of the firm's total (i.e., internal and external) audit coverage, while simultaneously exhibiting concern for external auditor independence.

scholarly journals The perceptions of loan officers and auditors of factors affecting auditor independence: Evidence from Palestine

Accounting ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 845-854
Author(s):  
Saher Aqel
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Auditor Independence ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
External Auditors ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
External Auditor ◽  
Loan Officers ◽  
International Audit

The study investigates the perceptions of external auditors and loan officers regarding external auditor's independence in Palestine. Data were gathered using a questionnaire developed by the author and include 5 main issues related to the perception of external auditor’s independence. The sampling population identified for this study consists of external auditors working in domestic and international audit firms and financial statement users mainly loan officers in Palestine. The sample included 79 auditors and 76 loan officers. The findings revealed that there are significant differences in the perceptions of external auditors and loan officers in relation to provision of non-audit services, auditor’s economic dependence on a single audit client, and long relationship between an auditor and a client. The results revealed mixed results about the effect of presence of active audit committee on independence of the external auditors. Furthermore, acceptance of significant gifts from the client was considered an important factor that may influence auditor independence by loan officers and external auditor and thus significant differences between the two respondent groups were found in relation to acceptance of significant gifts from the client. These findings can be useful to policy makers and professional auditing bodies in Palestine on setting new regulations or strengthening existing ones to enforce auditor’s independence in Palestine.

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