The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms

We investigate the effects of internal audit investments on financially distressed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, we examine the impacts of internal audit investments on these firms’ going concern opinion. We argue that higher internal audit investments expedite these firms’ recoverability by...

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Main Authors: Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan, Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/1/43962-141150-1-SM.pdf
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author Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan,
Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir,
author_facet Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan,
Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir,
author_sort Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description We investigate the effects of internal audit investments on financially distressed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, we examine the impacts of internal audit investments on these firms’ going concern opinion. We argue that higher internal audit investments expedite these firms’ recoverability by improving their controls and operations. The assurance and consulting activities provided by internal auditors enable these firms to mitigate the material uncertainty of the going concern opinions issued by external auditors. To examine such relationship, we chose 137 firm-year observations of Malaysian financially distressed firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2016 to 2018. We ran a logistic regression analysis and found that internal audit investments are negatively and significantly associated with the going concern opinions reported by an external auditor. This result suggests that high internal audit investments reduce the likelihood for an external auditor to issue a going concern opinion. As stated in ISA 570, if recovery plans have no material uncertainty and are sufficient to mitigate the going concern problem (which is argued to be assisted by the internal audit function of the firm), then an external auditor can issue a clean audit report even for firms that are in financial distress. Evidence from this study contributes to our understanding of the importance of investments in internal audit functions and highlights that the assurance and consultation from internal auditors can ensure a careful monitoring of the strategies and operations of firms.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:167352021-06-08T02:28:17Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/ The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan, Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir, We investigate the effects of internal audit investments on financially distressed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, we examine the impacts of internal audit investments on these firms’ going concern opinion. We argue that higher internal audit investments expedite these firms’ recoverability by improving their controls and operations. The assurance and consulting activities provided by internal auditors enable these firms to mitigate the material uncertainty of the going concern opinions issued by external auditors. To examine such relationship, we chose 137 firm-year observations of Malaysian financially distressed firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2016 to 2018. We ran a logistic regression analysis and found that internal audit investments are negatively and significantly associated with the going concern opinions reported by an external auditor. This result suggests that high internal audit investments reduce the likelihood for an external auditor to issue a going concern opinion. As stated in ISA 570, if recovery plans have no material uncertainty and are sufficient to mitigate the going concern problem (which is argued to be assisted by the internal audit function of the firm), then an external auditor can issue a clean audit report even for firms that are in financial distress. Evidence from this study contributes to our understanding of the importance of investments in internal audit functions and highlights that the assurance and consultation from internal auditors can ensure a careful monitoring of the strategies and operations of firms. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/1/43962-141150-1-SM.pdf Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan, and Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir, (2020) The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms. Asian Journal of Accounting and Governance, 14 . pp. 1-12. ISSN 2180-3838 https://ejournal.ukm.my/ajac/issue/view/1350
spellingShingle Fazlin Erwinaz Hassan,
Amirul Hafiz Mohd Nasir,
The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title_full The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title_fullStr The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title_full_unstemmed The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title_short The impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
title_sort impacts of investment in internal audit functions on the going concern opinion for financially distressed firms
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16735/1/43962-141150-1-SM.pdf