불성실공시와 감사보고시차

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether audit report lag increases when enterprises being audited are designated as unfaithful disclosure corporations. Concretely, purpose of this study to analyze whether the time taken by auditors to prepare audit reports increases when enterprises being audited have been designated as unfaithful disclosure corporations and according to related penalty points. The unfaithful disclosure system was introduced to prevent the disorder of the capital market caused by inadequate disclosures. The designation of an enterprise as an unfaithful disclosure corporation means that the manager of the relevant enterprise conducted inadequate disclosures to the capital market with an impure intention. Unfaithful disclosures may occur when enterprises’ accounting systems and internal accounting control systems are not effectively operated. Auditors should evaluate unfaithful disclosure corporations as being highly risky that the impure intentions of the managers that conducted unfaithful disclosures may be included in the preparation of financial statements. Therefore, the auditors should collect sufficient audit evidence to reduce the audit risk and taking additional time leading to delays in the preparation and submission of audit reports. Based on the foregoing background, this study is intended to examine the effects of the designation enterprises as unfaithful disclosure corporations on audit report lag. In addition, this study analyzes whether audit report lag of unfaithful disclosure corporations increases when the present and accumulated penalty points imposed on the relevant corporations increase. Furthermore, to examine whether auditors’ evaluation of audit risks varies among listing markets, the entire samples were divided into those listed in the KOSPI stock market and those in the KOSDAQ stock market to analyze the samples separately along while analyzing the entire samples. According to the results of analyses, the designation of enterprises as unfaithful disclosure corporations has positive (+) effects on audit report lag in the entire samples. On the other hand, although significant positive (+) relationships were found between the designation of enterprises as unfaithful disclosure corporations and audit report lag in the KOSPI stock market, no significant relationship was found between the designation of enterprises as unfaithful disclosure corporations and audit report lag in the KOSDAQ stock market. According to results of analyses conducted using the present and accumulated penalty points of unfaithful disclosure corporations, the present and accumulated penalty points of unfaithful disclosure corporations have positive (+) effects on audit report lag in the entire samples. In addition, the results indicating the audit report lag increased along with the present and accumulated penalty points of unfaithful disclosure corporations can be identified both in the KOSPI stock market and in the KOSDAQ stock market. This study should have some contribution in that it presents empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the unfaithful disclosure system operated in South Korea. In addition, this study should provide implications to follow-up studies because it presents results indicating that the designation of enterprises as unfaithful disclosure corporations, and the present and accumulated penalty points should be considered in addition to other factors that affect audit report lag. Furthermore, the study is judged to provide implications to auditors, enterprises being audited, and supervising organizations in that it presents results indicating that opportunity costs may additionally incurred following increases in audit hours due to unfaithful disclosures.