دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تاثیر کمیته حسابرسی و به موقع بودن گزارشگری مالی: شرکت های تونس - امرالد 2018

1. Introduction

Timeliness has long been recognized as one of the important aspects of financial reporting (IASB, 2010; FASB, 2010; Sultana, Singh and Van der Zahn, 2015, Ika and Ghazali, 2012; Abbott, Parker and Peters, 2012; Nelson and Shukeri, 2011). This qualitative attribute suggests that an audit report “must be made available before it loses its ability to influence the decision makers” (Delaney, Epstein, Adler and Foran, 1997, p. 24). In the emerging capital markets, financial reporting is the primary source of information available to shareholders (Al-Ajmi, 2008). It follows that timely publication of the audited financial statements in the annual report affects its decision-making utility (Piot, 2008) and reduces information asymmetry among stakeholders in the capital market (Owusu-Ansah and Leventis, 2006). However, the timely publication of corporate financial information depends on the time taken by the external auditor to complete the audit process (Leventis, Caramanis, and Weetman, 2005; Van Beest, Braam and Boelens, 2009). Consequently, there is pressure on the external auditor to issue the audit report without undue delay.

6. Conclusion

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of audit committee characteristics on audit delay of Tunisian listed firms. Analyses examined five key audit committee characteristics: financial expertise, independence, size, diligence and authority. Using balanced panel data of 162 firm-year observations drawn from Tunisian listed companies during 2011-2013, findings of this study reveal that a higher proportion of directors with financial expertise on audit committees, auditor opinion, firm size and auditor specialization are associated with timelier financial reporting of Tunisian listed companies. However, audit committee independence, authority, meeting frequency and size do not appear to have a significant impact on audit delay.

This study makes several important contributions. Our analysis fills a gap in the extant literature where very little research has examined how the audit committee influences audit report lag in an emerging market criticized for the lack of maturity of its corporate governance system (Klibi, 2015; Fitch Ratings, 2009). Findings are consistent with the agency theory, suggesting that audit committee members’ increased technical expertise enhances financial reporting quality.

Our results also have an application for managers and policy makers. With regard to managers, findings from our study emphasize that audit committee financial accounting expertise improves the external auditors’ reliance on internal audit work and this consequently reduces audit delay. With respect to policy makers, our results highlight that the presence of financial experts on audit committees contribute significantly to the enhancement of financial reporting quality through timely disclosure.