Relationship between audit committee characteristics and independent audit quality

Abstract

This study aims at identifying which characteristics of the Audit Committee are related to the quality of independent audit companies listed in differentiated corporate governance levels of BM & FBovespa. The research is descriptive, quantitative and documentary. The data were obtained in public reports of 57 companies in 2013 and they were analyzed through multiple linear regression. In order to measure the quality of the audit, the IQUA model proposed by Braunbeck (2010) was adopted. Analyzing the results one can infer that the best quality audit is obtained in companies that have audit committees with members who have knowledge in accounting and finance; and also members who work in the approval of non-audit services and adopt procedures to receive and handle the complaints. On the other hand, companies with committees responsible for the efficiency and effectiveness of internal controls tend to have lower quality audit. Among the control variables it was observed that companies with greater total assets, belonging to the level 1 or level 2 of corporate governance and had growth in its assets are related to lower quality audit.