Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems (JAMIS)


DOES AUDIT QUALITY IMPROVE AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MANDATORY AUDIT PARTNER ROTATION?

Vol. 12, Nr. 2/2013 ,   p263..279

Author(s):  
Gary MONROE
Sarowar HOSSAIN


Keywords:   going-concern opinion, audit partner tenure, distressed companies, mandatory rotation

Abstract:  

We investigate whether audit partner tenure and audit quality associations remain significant after the implementation of mandatory audit partner rotation. Carey and Simnett (2006) report a significant negative association between long audit partner tenure and the propensity to issue qualified going-concern opinions for financially distressed companies. However, their study uses data from a period when there was no restriction on the length of audit partner tenure, i.e., from a period before there was mandatory audit partner rotation after a fixed period of time. We revisit this issue using Australian data from a period after the introduction of mandatory audit partner rotation. We find a significant positive association between audit partner tenure when tenure is five years or more and the likelihood of an auditor issuing a going-concern opinion for a financially distressed company. Our findings provide evidence that auditors are more likely to issue qualified going-concern opinions for financially distressed companies when there is mandatory audit partner rotation after a fixed period of time. Our findings suggest that the implementation of mandatory audit partner rotation has improved audit quality.



Download:   http://online-cig.ase.ro/jcig/art/paper_1850.pdf

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