scholarly journals Evaluating the Intentionality of Identified Misstatements: How Perspective Can Help Auditors in Distinguishing Errors from Fraud

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin L. Hamilton

SUMMARY Although auditors are responsible for detecting misstatements arising from either error or fraud, the auditing standards require very different audit responses when a misstatement is believed to be the result of an intentional act (AS No. 14, PCAOB 2010a). Specifically, if auditors suspect intentional misstatement, then they should perform additional audit procedures, reassess overall fraud risk and the integrity of management, and communicate potential concerns to the audit committee. Thus, if auditors fail to recognize and respond to information indicating a misstatement was caused intentionally, then audit quality may be impaired. The objective of this study is to investigate whether auditors who consider the perspective of the manager responsible for a misstatement's occurrence are more sensitive to circumstances indicating the misstatement was intentional. Using an experiment with audit managers and senior managers, I find that auditors who consider the client manager's perspective assess the misstatement as significantly more likely to be intentional when circumstances surrounding it indicate high, as opposed to low, fraud risk. In contrast, auditors who do not consider the client manager's perspective do not assess intentionality any differently, regardless of the level of fraud risk.

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Shaharatulfazzah Mohd Saad ◽  
Jonathan Gerard Evans ◽  
Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori

Author(s):  
Marianne Kok ◽  
Warren Maroun

Background: The article focuses on inconsistencies in audit approaches when auditors place reliance on the work performed by others. It examines differences in the approach followed by auditors when relying on the work of a predecessor versus the work of an auditor’s expert.Setting: The study contributes to the limited body of auditing research focusing on the technical application of International Auditing Standards and the functioning of actual audit practice in a South African context. It outlines how auditors apply their professional judgement when using technical auditing standards when comparing the work of a similarly trained expert in the field of accounting and auditing (per ISA510) versus the work of an expert in a field other than accounting and auditing (per ISA620).Aim: The purpose of this article is to examine and identify inconsistencies in the interpretation and application of ISA510 and ISA620 by a purposefully selected number of registered auditors in South Africa. It considers how inconsistencies in the approach followed when an auditor places reliance on the work of another auditor or an auditor’s expert points to underlying efforts to seek legitimacy and manage legal liability.Method: Detailed interviews are used to explore auditors’ experiences and challenges with the application of these two ISAs.Results: Audit quality is not necessarily a function of compliance with professional standards. While ISA510 and ISA620 deal with a situation where an auditor places reliance on the work of a third party, they are interpreted and applied very differently.Conclusion: The application of ISA510 is part of a rules-based approach to auditing aimed at reducing an auditor’s legal liability rather than enhancing audit quality. The same logic applies to ISA620 except that auditors perceive that their risk exposure is lower because the standard is limited to a single transaction or balance rather than to the entire audit engagement. The application of ISA620 is also useful for convincing internal reviewers, external regulators or audit committees that sufficient appropriate evidence for a complex line item has been obtained. The need to ensure a more robust process for testing complex balances and transactions is not, however, the primary consideration. Regulators and standard setters should not assume that compliance with auditing standards results in better quality audits. At the operational level, the need to manage legal liability and to signal the credibility of test procedures may be more relevant for the execution of audits than ensuring that audit opinions are supported by sufficient appropriate audit evidence. As only two standards, applied in a single jurisdiction, are used to illustrate this point, additional research will be required to determine the extent of inconsistency in the application of auditing standards and how this can result in lower levels of audit quality.


Author(s):  
Jimmy F. Downes ◽  
Michelle A. Draeger ◽  
Abbie E. Sadler

We investigate whether audit committees use voluntary disclosures to signal the committees’ higher level of involvement in the audit partner-selection process, which contributes to higher levels of audit quality. Audit committees more involved in the partner-selection process should ensure the selection of a more rigorous partner. We test this conjecture by first identifying partners new to audit engagements. We then compare audit quality for companies whose audit committees disclose involvement in the selection of the new partner to those without this disclosure. We find that this disclosure is positively associated with audit quality (measured using discretionary accruals, misstatements, and meeting consensus analyst forecasts by a very small margin). Our results are more salient for complex companies and those with powerful audit committees. These findings highlight that audit committees use their disclosures to signal involvement in the partner-selection process and are relevant to the Securities and Exchange Commission.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Vadasi ◽  
Michalis Bekiaris ◽  
Andreas G. Koutoupis

Purpose This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the association between audit committee characteristics and internal audit quality through internal audit professionalization. Design/methodology/approach The investigation of the research question was based on 45 usable responses that were received from a survey of chief audit executives from firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange and combined with publicly available information from annual reports. Findings The results indicate that audit committee characteristics (independence, diligence through frequent meetings and interaction with internal audit through valuation) influence internal audit professionalization. In addition, they demonstrate that internal audit professionalization is also influenced by CEO duality and firm’s external auditor. Practical implications The findings of this study have implications for audit committees wishing to improve their overall effectiveness, by identifying areas with substantial impact on internal audit quality. Moreover, regulators of corporate governance bodies can also benefit from the results to strengthen audit committee’s efficiency regarding internal audit function oversight. Originality/value The results add to the literature on the discussion of internal audit professionalization and complement the work of other researchers in the field of audit committee’s impact on internal audit quality/effectiveness. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature on the effect of audit committee characteristics on internal audit professionalization, an element introduced from an institutional theory perspective.


Author(s):  
Theresia Julina Rusli ◽  
I Dewa Nyoman Wiratmaja

This  research  aims to find empirical evidence  about the impact  of  workload  and  audit tenure  on  audit quality  and  using audit  committee  as  a  moderating  variable. This  research  focused  on  manufacturing companies  that  listed  on  the  Indonesia Stock Exchange. Sample was collected using   purposive sampling method and resulted 31  companies as a final sample.  The  data are analyzed by using Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA). The results of  this research indicate  that the  workload  has a negative  impact on  audit quality.  Audit tenure has a positive impact on audit quality. Audit committee reduces the negative impact of workload on audit quality. And audit committee reduces the positive impact of audit tenure on audit quality.


Author(s):  
Hanen Ghorbel ◽  
Hela Elleuch

<p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of intellectual capital information’s of firms that went through IPO.              Our sample includes 43 firms that IPOs listed in the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2012 of which the prospectuses for the initial public offering are available. Our study, unlike other studies focuses on the issuing prospectuses. The paper applied a disclosure index comprising of 78 items (Bukh and al (2005)) to quantify the amount of information regarding intellectual capital included in the IPO prospectuses of canadian firms. Multiple regression model and Correlation is used. The results revealed that the managerial ownership, the presence of an audit committee and industry are significantly associated with the voluntary disclosure of information about the intellectual capital in prospectuses. While firm size, age, the audit committee’ activity and audit quality do not affect disclosure. The results are interpreted in the light of the increasing importance of disclosing information on intellectual capital to the capital market a in case of IPO and constitute a contribution to the ongoing debate on corporate reporting practices.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Izhar Haq ◽  
Teresa Lang ◽  
Hongkang Xu

This study uses GMI Ratings directorship data from 2008 to 2013 along with the associated financial data to examine the relationship between audit committee chair change with the absolute discretionary accruals in the financial statements of the reporting companies.  Our results suggest that audit committee chair change is positively associated with the absolute discretionary accruals.  Specifically, absolute discretionary accruals are significantly higher when there is a change in the audit committee chair.  These results are consistent with prior research that deviations from the predicted values of accruals is an indicator of “poor” audit quality.  An additional finding of this paper is that a person younger than 60 is more likely to be a new audit committee chair when there is a change and therefore will have less experience and contacts than the outgoing chair. An important implication of these results is that audit committee chair change can have a significant impact on the quality of the financial statements of a company as well as on the audit quality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-555
Author(s):  
Stephanie Yolanda ◽  
Fefri Indra Arza ◽  
Halmawati Halmawati

This study aims to determine the effect of the audit tenure, audit committee, and audit capacity stress on audit quality as measured by earnings surprise benchmark approach. The research used secondary data. The population was all manufacturing companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period of 2015-2017. The data collection technique used is purposive sampling and 303 samples obtained data. The independent variables were audit tenure, audit committee, and audit capacity stress at the significance level of 5%.  This study using logistic regression analysis techniques. The result of the research showed that audit tenure had no significant influence on audit quality with a significance level that is equal to 0.145, audit committee had no significant influence on audit quality a significance level that is equal to 0.652, and audit capacity stress had no significant influence on audit quality a significance level that is equal to 0.522 of the manufacturing companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange


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