Audit Reporting Lag in Russia: Impact of Corporate Governance Characteristics

• Main Author: Otaqulovich, Barakaev Otabek
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: HD2709-2930.7 Corporations
• Online Access: https://etd.uum.edu.my/2718/1/Barakaev_Otabek_Otaqulovich.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/2718/2/1.Barakaev_Otabek_Otaqulovich.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/2718/

Timeliness is very crucial aspect in assessing the accountability and the quality of financial reporting. Financial information could be accessed by users once the auditor has issued and completed the annual reports. Therefore, the time taken to publish the annual report depends partly on the audit time taken to prepare the audit report. This paper purposes are to investigate the extent of audit report lag (ARL) for companies listed in Russia capital market and to examine the association between corporate governance (CG) characteristics (board independence and existence of audit committee) and audit ARL for companies listed in Russia capital market. The literature on determinants of ARL motivated the author to investigate about the impact of CG characteristics and audit-related characteristics on ARL especially in emerging capital markets, such as the Russian stock market (RSM) for a sample (62 companies) of Russian listed companies. Further, the study includes explanatory variables relating to CG characteristics, which have not previously been considered (i.e. board independence, and existence of an audit committee), that may shed more light on the structure and dynamics of the ARL. The ARL for each of the 62 listed sample companies ranged from a minimum interval of 50 days to a maximum interval of 174 days, and Russian listed companies take approximately three months on average. Regression analyses indicate that board independence significantly affect ARL. But on the other hand existence of an audit committee has insignificant affect on ARL. Also, one control variable (type of auditor) significantly affected ARL. This study of Russian companies listed on the RSM represents the initial comprehensive examination of ARL, and it is consider the first study to provide a thorough examination of the association between CG characteristics and ARL.