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Internal Audit Attributes and External Audit's Reliance on Internal Audit: Implications for Audit Fees
Author(s) -
Mohamed Zulkifflee,
Mat Zain Mazlina,
Subramaniam Nava,
Wan Yusoff Wan Fadzilah
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of auditing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1099-1123
pISSN - 1090-6738
DOI - 10.1111/j.1099-1123.2012.00450.x
Subject(s) - internal audit , accounting , joint audit , audit evidence , information technology audit , chief audit executive , audit plan , walk through test , business , audit , certification , quality audit , financial statement , external auditor , economics , management
This study aims to examine two aspects of internal audit quality, namely internal audit competency and internal audit contribution to financial statement audits. Consistent with the substitution view , this study predicts a negative relationship between the competency aspects of internal audit (the tenure of the existence of internal audit in the organization, internal audit staff expertise in IT and computer skills, training hours, internal audit staff professional certifications in accounting and auditing, and internal audit staff experience in auditing) and audit fees. Second, this study tests whether the contribution of internal auditors to financial statement audit reduces audit fees. The data analysis is based on a cross‐sectional regression model with observations of 73 public‐listed firms in Malaysia, which include publicly available data matched with survey responses from their internal and external auditors. The results of the study suggest that the competency of internal audit, namely the tenure of the existence of internal audit in the organization, training, internal audit staff prior experience in auditing and accounting, and certifications are associated with lower audit fees. Our findings for both aspects of internal audit quality (competency and internal audit contribution) lend support to the substitution view for explaining the links between internal audit quality and audit fees.