Comité d'audit : quel impact sur l'entreprise et la qualité de l'audit externe ?

Abstract

Following financial scandals across the world in the last 20 years, regulators decided to react to get the confidence back from the stakeholders. A decade ago, one of the initiatives of the European Union (EU) was the obligation for public interest entities to set up an audit committee (AC) within the Board of Directors. This provision was further implemented into Belgian law in 2008. More recently additional rules have been applied in Belgium and in the EU. In our study, we tried to investigate the impact of the existence of an AC established in Belgian companies. More precisely, we studied the influence of the AC on the quality of financial information, internal control and risk management as well as on external audit quality. First of all, we performed an analysis of documentation concerning the AC so that we were able to have a full understanding of the subject and its implications. We then challenged our hypotheses with the results of several interviews. We have indeed met some stakeholders from different companies in Belgium that are part of the AC or regularly in relation with. The results of these interviews show that the effect of the AC is overall positive. Concerning the quality of financial information, the AC gives assurance to the Board of Directors that they can approve the annual accounts without any doubt. Furthermore, it provides the company with useful advice on the way they communicate to the public, either financially speaking or not. As far as the quality of internal control and risk management is concerned, the AC really has a great impact by asking the good questions. By calling the way the company is doing into question, the AC ensures that the procedures are well handled and that the risks are under control. People surveyed insisted particularly on this point. Because of the changing world, the AC will always have more responsibilities in challenging the management and in ensuring that the company will not be confronted to new risks. The voluntary establishment of an AC is mainly based on the willingness to create a good corporate governance. Regarding external audit quality, the AC also has a positive influence even if participants agree on the fact that the audit quality depends first of all on the quality of external auditors. Our study demonstrates that the effects identified above are only possible if the majority of the AC members are independent and if most of them have a financial expertise and an industry knowledge.