The “Big Four” and “Sai”– A Case Study on the Management of Financial Audit Independence

The process of financial auditing and the auditors themselves must be independent and perceived as such. We analysed a sample of the companies that received financial auditing by the Big Four auditing firms in Romania and that parallel a sample of Romanian Court of Accounts audited companies. The conclusion suggests a difference in the audit opinion of these two groups, which might be the result of direct payment for contracted services or of the lack of such a connection. The lack of any moneyed connection between the auditor and the audited would improve financial audit independence.