Corporate Governance and Audit Quality in Nigeria: Evidence from the Banking Industry (Published)
This study examined the relationship between corporate governance and the quality of auditor’s report with evidence from the Nigerian Banking Industry. The research design adopted for this study is the ex-post facto as the research relied on historic data. Eleven (11) deposit money banks quoted on the Nigerian Stocks Exchange were sampled. In testing our hypothesis, the correlation analysis was applied to a dataset covering seven (7) years from 2007 to 2014 that is the post-corporate governance period. Analysis suggests that while board composition has a negative and insignificant relationship with audit quality, separation of the roles of the CEO from that of the chairman of the board, board size, and composition of the audit committee has positive and significant relationship with audit quality. Furthermore, findings also show that ownership concentration has a positive but insignificant relationship with audit quality. Findings also show that the strength of the positive linear relationship between the separation of the roles of the CEO from that of the chairman of the board and the audit quality is as high as 0.702377 or 70.23% followed by the relationship between board size and audit quality which stood at 0.452896 or 45.28%. However, the study thus concludes that effective corporate governance arises out of responsible and simultaneous vigilant actions by the managers, the board of Directors, shareholders and auditors. Good financial Reporting from the external auditors is an important building block of corporate governance because the information provided to the shareholders has to be optimal in terms of cost and benefits. The study also recommends that the relationship between management and shareholders have to be characterized by transparency and fairness.
Keywords: Audit Quality, Board Composition, Board size, Corporate Governance, Nigeria
Effect of Audit Fees on Audit Quality: Evidence from Cement Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria. (Published)
This paper aims to examine the effect of audit fees on audit quality in Nigeria using a sample of listed cement companies on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In specific terms, the study investigates the relationship between audit fee, audit tenure, client size, leverage ratio and audit quality. Ordinary Least Square Model estimation technique was employed to analyze the relationship between the explanatory variables and the dependent variable. Secondary data derived from the published annual reports of the selected companies for a six year period (2010-2015) was used for the study. Findings from the study show that audit fee, audit tenure, client size and leverage ratio exhibit a joint significant relationship with audit quality given coefficient of determination (R2) being 0.6006 and a combined p-value of 0.001 and Fcalc=7.14. This implies that the predictive power of the independent variables as used to explain changes in audit quality is about 60%. Audit fee in particular shows a significant positive impact on audit quality with a t and p-values of (4.04 and 0.001) respectively as well as a high positive correlation coefficient of 0.7513 with audit quality. The study recommends that Government through the various professional bodies should develop robust policies that will help improve audit quality in Nigeria.
Keywords: Audit Quality, Audit fee, Audit tenure, Client Size, Leverage Ratio .
Auditor Tenure, Auditor Rotation and Audit Quality: A Review (Published)
The arguments on auditor tenure and rotation revolved around ensuring auditor independence and promoting audit quality. Two hypotheses tend to explain the effect of longer auditor tenure. The auditor independence hypothesis argues that longer tenure decreases audit quality and financial reporting because of the impairment of auditor’s independence while the expertise hypothesis posits that longer tenure improves audit quality through learning. Nevertheless, the auditor tenure be long enough for auditors to bring their competence and expertise into the auditing process and also familiarize with the audited firm and environment. Apart from the few countries where there have mandatory audit rotations, it is still under experimentation in many other countries Moreover, the results of the impact of audit firm/partner rotation on audit quality have been mixed and inconclusive. And specifically, one of the leading advocates for mandatory auditor rotation through the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, the United States, has recently made a U-turn through appropriate amendment to the mandatory rotation of the audit firm in 2013.However, in April,2014 the European Union parliament voted in favour of 2011 proposal to force European companies to hire new auditors after six years with a four year cooling period. Therefore, we conclude that the mixed evidence and the recent regulatory changes on auditor rotation provide opportunities for future studies on auditor tenure, auditor rotation and audit quality.
Keywords: Audit Firm, Audit Partner, Audit Quality, Auditor Independence, Auditor Rotation, Auditor Tenure
AUDIT FIRM SIZE AND CASH – BASED EARNINGS MANAGEMENT OF QUOTED COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (Published)
This study follows prior studies on cash – based activities manipulations to investigate total levels of cash – based earnings management relative to the association between cash – based earnings management and audit firm size of companies in Nigeria. First, the study measures the normal level of real activities by focusing on three manipulation schemes namely, manipulation of sales, overproduction, and reduction in discretionary expenses. The normal levels of each type of real activities manipulation were measured as the residual from relevant estimation models. The abnormal CFO, abnormal production costs and abnormal discretionary expenses were computed as the difference between the actual values and the normal levels predicted from the respective models while the composite value of the three variables is the estimate for cash – based earnings management. Based on a sample of 342 companies – year observations from the NSE and applying audit firm size as a measure, comprehensive multivariate analyses were conducted on archival data covering 2006 – 2011. The result showed that audit firm size exerts significant negative relationship with cash – based earnings management of quoted companies in Nigeria. It is suggested that companies in Nigeria should improve their earnings quality only through sales growth and cost control strategies and present distinct reports on earnings quality; company auditors should issue Integrated Audit Quality Assurance Reports based on earnings quality assessments statutorily backed by earnings monitoring of companies in Nigeria; while regulatory agencies should issue authoritative codes of best practice in Nigeria
Keywords: Audit Firm Size, Audit Quality, Cash Flow from Operations., Earnings Management, Earnings Quality
Effective Audit Committee, Audit Quality and Earnings Management Before and After Financial Security Law Adoption (Review Completed - Accepted)
This study examines the interaction between the effectiveness of audit committee and external audit functions to mitigate the earnings management in the Tunisian companies before and after financial security law adoption. Using 261 firm-year observations during the period 2001-2009, our results document a substitute effect between the presence of Big four auditor and effective audit committee to reducing the discretionary accruals in the Pre-law n° 2005-96 periods. We also find a link of complementary between the score of effectiveness of audit committee and industry specialist auditor to constrain earnings management. Finally, our findings show a complementary relation between the effectiveness of audit committee and audit tenure, after the passage of law n° 2005-96
Keywords: Accruals, Audit Committee, Audit Quality, Law N° 2005-96