Audit Report Lag, International Financial Reporting Standards (Ifrs) And Corporate Governance In Ghana

Abstract

This study evaluates the influence of mandatory adoption of IFRS and corporate governance (CG) mechanisms such as board size, audit committee effectiveness, board independence and ownership structure on audit report lag (ARL). Additionally, it examines the lagged effect of these CG mechanisms on ARL. The study employs a sample of firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange from 2003 – 2014 which resulted in 168 firm-year observations. The panel-corrected standard errors regression method was adopted due to its ability to correct for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. The result shows an increase in ARL after IFRS mandate with a pooled mean of 109 days. However, there was no significant difference between ARL pre and post IFRS mandate. This implies that the mandatory adoption of IFRS has no significant influence on ARL. On CG mechanisms, the results indicate that board size has a negative relationship with ARL, board independence has positive relationship with ARL while ownership structure and audit committee effectiveness have insignificant relationships with ARL. All lagged CG mechanisms have insignificant relationship with ARL but for lagged board independence which has a positive relationship with ARL. This implies that on average CG mechanism have instantaneous influence on ARL except board independence which has a further increasing effect on ARL in the subsequent year. Insights from this study should inform policymakers such as SEC-Ghana and GSE, whose prior policies have focused on driving a more independent board amongst listed firms, on the effect of the possible delay in the release of audited annual report which is triggered by such policies.