scholarly journals Audit committee quality and audit report lag: the role of mandatory adoption of IFRS in Saudi companies

Accounting ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Mahfod Mobarak Aldoseri ◽  
Nasr Taha Hassan ◽  
Magdy Melegy Abd El Hakim Melegy

This paper aims to examine the effect of audit committee characteristics on audit report lag, and also explores whether this effect will vary between before and after mandatory adoption of IFRS in Saudi listed companies. Based on a Saudi sample of 388 firm-year observations from 2015 to 2018, the Poisson regression analysis shows that among audit committee characteristics, only audit committee financial experience significantly influences the timing of financial reporting. The result indicates a weak influence of audit committees on timeliness of financial reporting, which is consistent with the results of most of previous studies. On the other hand, the results show a strong impact of the adoption of IFRS on the context of that relationship, where the results show the impact of IFRS on audit report lag, audit committee quality and the association between them.

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Ali Almuzaiqer

ABSTRACT Purpose – This study aims to examine the contemporary timeliness of financial reporting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the impact of audit committee effectiveness on this timeliness. Design/Methodology/Approach – Timeliness of financial reporting in this study is measured by audit report lag (ARL), which is the number of days between the date of the financial year end and the date of the audit report. The data from listed companies on the UAE capital markets; Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM), for three years from 2011 to 2013 resulted in 298 observations. The main statistical techniques of the study are means and multiple regressions. Findings – The findings show that generally all companies meet the submission deadlines imposed by the two UAE markets. Furthermore, ARL is influenced by audit committee size and profitability, while no evidence is found to support the effect of audit committee expertise, audit committee meetings and firm size on ARL. Practical Implications – The results of the study show that only audit committee size has a significant influence in reducing ARL. This may be attributed to having minimal variation in the implementation of the Code of Corporate Governance (CCG), particularly audit committee attributes, in the UAE. The results suggest that the current governance by audit committees is adequate to ensure that the financial reports of companies in the UAE are timely. However, except for audit committee size, the other audit committee attributes are unable to further shorten ARL.   Originality/Value –The capital markets in the UAE and its CCG are relatively new. Hence, regulatory requirements may be less stringently implemented by companies in this country. Consequently, timely audited financial reports are demanded by local and international investors to make decisions and alleviate speculation. Thus, determining audit committee attributes that reduce ARL is beneficial to the UAE markets, the listed companies and investors.     Keywords Audit report lag (ARL), Financial reporting timeliness, Audit committee, UAE Paper Type: Research paper


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).


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taha Almarayeh ◽  
Modar Abdullatif ◽  
Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between audit committees (ACs) and earnings management (EM) in the developing country context of Jordan. In particular, it investigates whether audit committee attributes, including their size, independence, expertise and meetings, are able to restrict discretionary accruals as a proxy for EM.Design/methodology/approachThe generalized least square (GLS) regression was used to study the association between audit committee attributes and discretionary accruals, as a proxy of EM, for a sample of industrial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2012–2020. Data were obtained from the firms' annual reports.FindingsThe regression results indicate that audit committee independence is the only audit committee attribute that seems to improve the effectiveness of ACs, in that it is significantly associated with less EM, while other audit committee attributes that were tested do not show statistically significant associations.Research limitations/implicationsIn emerging markets, like Jordan, ACs may not be an efficient monitoring mechanism; therefore, it can be argued that the prediction made by the agency theory about the role of ACs in mitigating opportunistic EM activities does not necessarily apply to all contexts.Practical implicationsA better understanding of audit committee effectiveness in developing countries could help regulators in these countries assess the impact of planned corporate governance (CG) reforms and to better monitor and enhance the performance of ACs.Social implicationsIn a setting characterized by closely held companies, high power distance and low demand for high-quality CG mechanisms, this study contributes to understanding how this business system operates, and how improving CG mechanisms could be successful in such cultures.Originality/valueThis study investigates the under-researched relationship between audit committee characteristics and EM in developing countries. In so doing, it aims to provide new insights into this relationship within the developing context case of Jordan, including if and how the institutional setting influences this relationship.


Author(s):  
Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan ◽  
Mabel D’Costa

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether audit committee ownership affects audit report lag. Independent audit committees are responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process, to ensure that financial statements are both credible and released to external stakeholders in a timely manner. To date, however, the extent to which audit committee ownership strengthens or compromises member independence, and hence, influences audit report lag, has remained unexplored. Design/methodology/approach This paper hypothesizes that audit committee ownership is associated with audit report lag. Further, the author hypothesize that both the financial reporting quality and the going concern opinions of a firm mediate the effect of audit committee ownership on audit report lag. Findings Using data from Australian listed companies, the author find that audit committee ownership increases audit report lag. The author further document that financial reporting quality and modified audit opinions rendered by external auditors mediate this positive relationship. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns emanating from firms’ deliberate decisions to grant shares to the audit committee members. Originality/value The study contributes to both the audit report timeliness and the corporate governance literatures, by documenting an adverse effect of audit committee ownership.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Schaffer

The audit committee of public interest entities performs a public function through its auditing of financial reporting, which can be broadly broken down into three facets: (i) its role of relieving the burden on the state by supplementing or replacing government supervision, (ii) its role as guarantor of the capital market’s confidence and (iii) its role as guarantor of an audit and thus as the ‘guarantor of the guarantor’. This public function is emphasised by the recent introduction of hitherto non-systemic state supervision of supervisory boards and audit committees. This supervision is, however, to be viewed critically as it could result in the beginnings of ‘stock authorities’. This study examines how the aforementioned public function radiates to the other supervisory bodies in companies, namely the auditor and the supervisory board. It also examines the dangers which European strengthening of audit committees pose to corporate governance based on the dualistic system and to the balance of power in public limited companies.


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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murya Habbash

The existing literature documents that the quality of financial reporting is higher when firms have effective audit committees. However, recent studies find that audit committees are not effective in family firms where agency conflicts arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders. This study extends the previous findings by investigating the effectiveness of audit committees in firms with similar agency conflicts when one owner obtains effective control of the firm. Compared to firms with a low level of block ownership, high-blockholder firms face less agency problems due to the separation of ownership and management, but more severe agency problems between controlling (blockholders) and non-controlling shareholders (minority shareholders). Using a unique hand-collected sample, this study tests the largest 350 UK firms for three years from 2005 to 2007, and shows that firms with effective audit committees have less earnings management. This study also documents that the monitoring effectiveness of audit committees is moderated in firms with high blockholder ownership. The results are not sensitive to the endogeneity test and hold for alternative specifications of both dependent and independent variables. Overall, these findings suggest that audit committees are ineffective in mitigating the majority-minority conflict compared to their effectiveness in reducing owners-managers conflicts. These conclusions, along with some recent similar evidence (e.g., Rose, 2009 and Guthrie and Sokolowsky, 2010), may raise doubts about the monitoring role of blockholders asserted by agency theorists and widely accepted in corporate governance literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (161) ◽  
pp. 156-171
Author(s):  
Alin-Constantin DUMITRESCU ◽  
◽  
Ovidiu-Constantin BUNGET ◽  
Valentin BURCA ◽  
Oana BOGDAN ◽  
...  

Over time social and economic events have reflected that the role of supervisory committees and especially of audit committees within entities is essential for ensuring sustainable development, increasing transparency and confidence. The purpose of the paper is to study the role of the audit committee in the financial reporting process of the companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the period 2015-2019. The proposed econometric model shows that the management of the entity is oriented towards reducing deficiencies and non-compliances with internal policies and procedures, giving internal control a central role in the decision-making process.


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