Opinions and Attitudes of Independent Auditors and Users of Audit Services Concerning Audit Quality

The level of accuracy and reliability in financial statements, is important for various decision makers. Due to the difficulties in accessing reliable information, reliability levels should be verified and approved. Independent audit is the process of verifying the reliability of financial statements and reporting the results. Getting the expected benefit out of independent audits depends on the quality of audit services. Opinions and attitudes of independent auditors and individuals who are the managers of audited companies, the attributes of audit quality, and differences of attitude are analyzed in this paper. The survey covers managers of 313 publicly held companies operating in various sectors, whose operations have to be audited by independent auditors under the Capital Market Law No. 2499; as well as auditors employed at 56 audit companies under the framework of the same Law. Name of both the audited enterprises were included in the list received from Istanbul Stock Exchange. (Ýstanbul Menkul Kýymetler Borsasý, Halka Açýk Ýþletmelerin Listesi, 2001, http://www.imkb.gov.tr/sirket.htm, 18.05.2001). Survey results show significant differences between the opinions and attitudes of the two groups with respect to audit quality. These differences are seen mostly in the auditors level of experience and information concerning the sector and audited companies; due professional care in all audit steps i.e. from client selection to the formation of auditor opinion; management and personnel policies of the audit firm; audit firms’ technical facilities; litigation; quality of response to client expectations in areas other than the audit service; workforce planning; gathering evidence; acceptance and continuity of clients.