ABSTRACT
Audit quality is expected to be enhanced if auditor’s independence is assured. Influences on the independence of auditor both internal and external to the firm may impair auditors’ independence. Impairment of auditor’s independence may impact negatively on audit quality. Secondary data was employed and up to twenty academic journal articles related to this title was reviewed in the light of pronouncements of related professional bodies. Since the onus of financial Statement preparation rest with the managers, the readiness for best stewardship accounting, a precursor to audit quality, is expected from the managers.
The focus of this paper is to evaluate the impacts auditors independence will have on audit quality. In doing this, factors such as audit firm tenure, audit fees, auditor’s committee independence; audit size and audit committee financial expertise were examined.
Conclusion from this evaluation was that Audit Committee Financial Expertise (ACFEXP) is not significantly related to audit quality (AUDQ); Audit Committee Independence (ACIND) is not significantly related to quality (AUDQ) and the extent of audit firm size (AUDFS) is not significantly related to audit quality (AUDQ). All the independent variable exhibited a positive relationship with AUDQ.
The study therefore recommended that in selecting members of audit committees, companies should focus more on the qualitative attributes of committee members like integrity and expertise rather than on the quantity, that is, numbers of members in these committees.
