Suchergebnisse

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal government grants to state and local governments have risen substantially, from $7 billion in 1960 to almost $450 billion budgeted in 2007. The single audit is an important mechanism of accountability for the use of federal grants by nonprofit organizations as well as state and local governments. However, the quality of single audits conducted under the Single Audit Act, as amended, has been a longstanding area of concern since the passage of the act in 1984. The President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) recently issued its Report on National Single Audit Sampling Project, which raises concerns about the quality of single audits and makes recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of those audits. This testimony provides (1) GAO's perspective on the history and importance of the Single Audit Act and the principles behind the act, (2) a preliminary analysis of the recommendations made by the PCIE for improving audit quality, and (3) additional considerations for improving the quality of single audits."

Abstract The only observable outcome of the audit process is normally the issued audit report, which, at least in its standard form, does not contain much information about audit quality (Balsam et al. 2003). Auditor quality is multidimensional and inherently unobservable, and there is no single auditor characteristic that can be used as a proxy for it. In the absence of direct measures for quality, audit consumers must assess the quality by using quality surrogates, or the overall reputation of an auditor (e.g. Shapiro 1983, Riley 2001). The purpose of this dissertation is to enhance our understanding of the determinants and implications of quality-differentiated audits through four inter-related essays. The findings of the essays shed light on the various ways in which client firms strive to signal high audit and consequent earnings quality. From the supply-side perspective, the essays of this dissertation provide evidence how some (individual) auditors have been able to establish a reputation higher than the generic reputation. Importantly, this dissertation adds to the ongoing debate about the regulator changes and initiatives in the European Union and the U.S.A. requiring disclosure of engagement partner identity. The rationale behind such a requirement is that it could bring within investors' reach greater transparency and accountability in the auditing process thereby helping to restore investor confidence in the capital markets. Consistent with this rationale, the results of this dissertation support the view that audit markets (and/or firm insiders) infer audit quality, at least to some extent, from the characteristics of the individual audit partner in charge.

Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the impact of audit market concentration resulting from decline in the number of audit firms due to mergers and the demise of Arthur Andersen. In this paper we find a positive association between audit market concentration (Herfindahl index) at the MSA level and audit quality (measured by discretionary accruals and the Dechow-Dichev (2002) measure of accrual quality). We control for fixed year effects, therefore our results are unlikely to be affected by the increase in concentration due to Andersen's demise contemporaneous with an increase in audit quality because of regulatory measures such as SOX. Our results are robust to alternative concentration and audit quality measures, and several sensitivity tests attempting to rule out omitted variables correlated with client firms' MSA location or attributes of clients and auditors. Our results are also robust to controls for endogeneity between audit market concentration and audit quality. Our evidence therefore supports the Government Accountability Office (2003, 2008) conclusions that increased audit market concentration is not currently a cause for concern.

Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the impact of audit market concentration resulting from decline in the number of audit firms due to mergers and the demise of Arthur Andersen. In this paper we find a positive association between audit market concentration (Herfindahl index) at the MSA level and audit quality (measured by discretionary accruals and the Dechow-Dichev (2002) measure of accrual quality). We control for fixed year effects, therefore our results are unlikely to be affected by the increase in concentration due to Andersen's demise contemporaneous with an increase in audit quality because of regulatory measures such as SOX. Our results are robust to alternative concentration and audit quality measures, and several sensitivity tests attempting to rule out omitted variables correlated with client firms' MSA location or attributes of clients and auditors. Our results are also robust to controls for endogeneity between audit market concentration and audit quality. Our evidence therefore supports the Government Accountability Office (2003, 2008) conclusions that increased audit market concentration is not currently a cause for concern.

Abstract: Audit Quality of Government Auditor. This study explores the relationship between government's auditors' personal characteristics and acceptance of dysfunctional behavior situational factors on government's audit quality. Data collection was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 111 government's auditors. The data was analyzed using PLS application. The results showed that government's auditors who increasingly accept dysfunctional behavior tend to have characteristic of external locus of control and that government's auditors with external locus of control tend to have low organizational commitment. Leadership style of the audit team leader during the audit process improved the government's auditors' commitment to their organization which leads to high-quality audit.Abstrak: Kualitas Audit dari Auditor Pemerintah. Penelitian ini mengeksplorasi hubungan antara karakteristik personal dan faktor-faktor situasional penerimaan perilaku disfungsional auditor pemerintah pada kualitas audit pemerintah. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan mendistribusikan kuisioner pada 111 auditor pemerintah. Data dianalisa menggunakan aplikasi PLS. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa auditor pemerintah yang semakin menerima perilaku disfungsional cenderung memiliki karakteristik locus of control eksternal dan auditor pemerintah dengan locus of control eksternal cenderung memiliki komitmen organisasi yang rendah. Gaya kepemimpinan tim audit selama proses audit meningkatkan komitmen auditor pemerintah pada organisasi mereka yang mengarah pada kualitas audit yang tinggi.