The Effect of Audit Committee Characteristics on the Audit Report Timeliness: An Applied Study on Saudi Companies

Abstract

The current study aimed to analyze the impact of the audit committee characteristics on the audit report timeliness in public joint stock companies listed on the Saudi capital market during the period from 2018-2019, by applying to a sample of 136 non-financial companies with a total of 266 observations. It is the first study in Saudi Arabia to measure the audit committee attributes through nine variables: the size of the audit committee, the independence of the audit committee, the meetings of the audit committee, the ownership of the audit committee, the new audit committee, the professional experience of the audit committee members, the experience of the members of the audit committee in the audit committees, and the age of the members of the audit committee, and the busyness of members of the Audit Committee.
The study found a negative and significant relationship between the professional experience of the audit committee members and the audit report timeliness. The study also found a positive and significant relationship for: Audit Committee meetings, ownership of the Audit Committee, the new Audit Committee, the experience of members of the Audit Committee in audit committees, and the audit report timeliness. The study provides a scientific contribution through these results, which includes some variables of the Audit Committee whose impact is tested on the timing of issuing the auditor’s report for the first time, and the recommendations of this study are useful for the supervisory authorities on the work of the auditor and corporate governance regulations.