Internal audit function, audit report lag and audit fee: evidence from the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose - How does the internal audit function make external auditors work more efficiently at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic? This study examines the relationship between internal audit function, audit report lag and audit fee at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses data from all public firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2018 to 2019 using the difference-in-difference test technique to answer the proposed hypothesis. In addition, this study also tested the issue of endogeneity using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and Two-Stage Least Square (Heckman, 1979). Findings - This study finds that, at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, a good internal audit function significantly reduced audit report lag and audit fee. These findings indicate that good corporate governance implemented through an internal audit function during the COVID-19 pandemic can give assurance to prevent and mitigate the firm's risk so that external auditors can work more efficiently. Furthermore, this study also carries out an additional analysis by subsampling the high and low technological industries. Based on the robustness test, it is revealed that the results of this study are consistent. Originality/value - This study contributes to the novelty of literature in auditing studies that highlights the audit process at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic