Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:32:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 trab02.pdf: 146205 bytes, checksum: 7d037a505731d13ee792dc2396d455c4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-11-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work aims to bring out and underscore the attributions of the Internal Control System, as well as to reinforce the need for implementing a Unit of Internal Control System into the local City Hall. Therefore, three features are important to be considered: the first is the objectiveness, taking into account not only the theory but some practice; the second is the motivation for the process; and the third is the contribution for those who are willing to know about the process. It is important to highlight that the intention is not to approach the existent universe of technical hypothesis, but to adapt and develop a study over the needs of the city local peculiarities. Thus, this work will highlight the administrative structure of Florianópolis City Hall serving for further discussion and improvement of Internal Control and Audit Committee Control proposed as an efficiency survey system already recognized. Finally, it is brought to light that only by an efficient internal control system it will be possible to fully apply what is required by the Federal Constitution. That is, planning that reaches efficient and effective aims and directresses, because repeated and sparse issues will only be solved when mistakes and irregularities are identified on time, otherwise they will cause indemnification when damage has already been produced. / Este trabalho tem o propósito de visualizar e ressaltar as atribuições do Sistema de Controle Interno e reforçar a necessidade e a importância da implantação de uma Unidade de Sistema de Controle Interno. Além desses fatores, se consideram importantes, para o trabalho, três características: a primeira, ser objetivo, com alguma prática, e não apenas teórico; a segunda, que tenha por objeto algo que realmente motive o processo; e a terceira, que dê algum tipo de contribuição para aqueles que, por uma ou outra razão, irão conhecê-lo. Ressalta-se, portanto, que a intenção não é abranger o universo de hipóteses técnicas existentes, havendo a necessidade de adaptação e desenvolvimento, no município, das peculiaridades locais. Enfim, o presente trabalho destacará a estrutura administrativa da Prefeitura Municipal de Florianópolis e servirá para a continuidade das discussões e aprimoramentos que envolvem o Controle Interno e Controladoria Interna propostos como sistema de avaliação da eficiência já reconhecida. Por fim, é importante a enfatizar que somente através de um eficiente sistema de controle interno é que se dará a ampla aplicação do que se extrai da Constituição Federal, que exige planejamento, atingimento de diretrizes e metas, com eficiência e eficácia, pois do contrário, apenas se resolverão, quando identificadas, questões amiúde e de forma esparsa, produzindo somente o ressarcimento do dano, pelo fato de não ser possível detectar erros e irregularidades em tempo oportuno.

This study attempted to discover the role of internal auditors in the professional development of audit committee members, leading to enhanced performance, through the provision of induction programmes and professional development opportunities to committee members, with due regard for the principles of good governance and international best practices. A secondary aim of this study was to propose methods to improve the relationship between the internal audit activity and audit committees in providing additional support to its members. The audit committee's needs and requirements were assessed by using the audit committee charter as the basis in identifying the responsibilities of the committee and the professional development needs of committee members in an organisation. It was found that a framework for the induction and professional development of audit committee members would be most useful to internal auditors to assist audit committees to meet their requirements and improve their performance. / Auditing / M. Com.

x, 84 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In this dissertation,I examine whether financial reporting quality increases following the appointment of an accounting expert to the audit committee. Prior literature documents positive cross-sectional associations between maintaining an accounting expert on the audit committee and financial reporting quality. Although this suggests that accounting expertise enhances the quality of a firm's financial reports, it is unclear whether financial reporting quality improves after appointing an accounting expert. Additionally, I explore how the strength of alternative governance provisions and the current expertise of the audit committee influence relations between appointing an accounting expert and changes in financial reporting quality. I hypothesize that accounting experts possess the financial backgrounds needed to detect accounting manipulations and the reputational capital to warrant actions that limit exposure to financial reporting failures. Therefore, I predict that newly appointed accounting experts have the ability and incentive to strengthen financial reporting systems and increase the quality of financial reports. Furthermore, I predict that incremental improvements in reporting quality following the appointment of an accounting expert are larger for strong governance firms because they possess the infrastructure necessary to act on audit committee recommendations and for firms with no prior accounting expertise because of opportunities for new accounting critiques by financially minded individuals. I test these predictions on a sample of 1,590 audit committee appointments between 2003 and 2005. Overall, I do not find empirical evidence of a change in financial reporting quality following the appointment of an audit committee accounting expert. However, I find that firms with strong governance that appoint an accounting expert experience larger post-appointment improvements in reporting quality than do firms with weak governance, as highlighted by more income-decreasing discretionary accruals, larger increases in earnings response coefficients, and higher quality accruals. Additionally, my evidence suggests that strong governance firms appointing their first accounting expert increase their reporting quality following the appointment. Therefore, my results imply that accounting expertise complements other governance mechanisms involved in financial monitoring. Overall, I provide evidence regarding the audit committee's influence over financial reporting and the conditions associated with effective use of accounting expertise. / Committee in charge: Steven Matsunaga, Chairperson, Accounting; David Guenther, Member, Accounting; Xuesong Hu, Member, Accounting; Larry Singell, Outside Member, Economics

This study examines the association between the extent of legal intensity in firms’ financial reports and their financial reporting quality. Firms’ financial reports contain embedded legal content arising from contracts and agreements underlying their operations. Accountants interpret the contract provisions and conditions to determine the timing and amounts recognized in financial reports. Legal content is technical and complex, creating a potential for misinterpretation and errors in accounting for transactions, thus adversely affecting financial reporting quality. Using legal tags in companies’ 10-K XBRL filings, I construct a measure of the legal intensity of financial reports. I document an inverse association between legal intensity of financial reports and financial reporting quality, proxied by accruals quality, analyst earnings forecast errors and dispersion, earnings informativeness, and accruals informativeness. The inverse association is driven by firm-specific legal content rather than common legal content. There is also some evidence that the inverse association is strengthened by high operational uncertainty and attenuated by accounting experts on the audit committee. Collectively, this study increases our understanding of challenges in translating legal content into financial reports and the benefit of audit committee accounting experts in this setting. / Business Administration/Accounting

This study examines decisions relating to the composition of audit committees by foreign private issuers (FPIs) that are listed on US exchanges. A firm listed on the US stock market must have an audit committee consisting of at least three financially literate independent directors, and disclose if it has at least one financial expert. Although FPIs are exempted from these requirements, 72 percent of FPIs choose to opt into complying with them. I find that FPIs from countries with a greater number of differences in audit committee requirements compared to US requirements are less likely to opt-in. Firms from weak investor protection countries are more likely to opt-in. Because FPIs are not mandated to follow US audit committee requirements, their opt-in choices indicate greater benefits (possibly from “bonding” to a rigorous regulatory setting) than compliance costs. Further investigation into the consequences of opting in show that FPIs opting into the US audit committee requirements are less likely to restate their financial statements or disclose internal control material weaknesses, have less earnings management, and hence have better financial reporting quality. / Business Administration/Accounting

Yes / This paper, using data from 100 UK listed firms, investigates the relationship between audit committee characteristics and intellectual capital (IC) disclosure. We find that overall IC disclosure is positively associated with audit committee characteristics such as the size and frequency of meetings, and negatively associated with audit committee directors’ shareholding. We find no significant relationship between IC disclosure and audit committee independence and financial expertise. We also observe that the association between audit committee characteristics and IC disclosure varies with the IC components (i.e. human capital, structural capital and relational capital), suggesting that the underlying factors that drive various components of IC disclosure are different. These results have important implications for policy-makers in that they confirm that the effectiveness of audit committees in the corporate reporting processes is a function of certain characteristics.

The aim of this research is to examine the determinants of the level of corporate risk disclosure (CRD) in the interim reports of Swedish non-financial companies. A quantitative research approach is used, the sample data of which consist of 166 firms with 4,849 interim reports over a 10-year period. By utilizing the notion of risk and its definition, I have distinguished three categories of risk, namely risk as uncertainty, risk as threat and risk as opportunity. A systematic content analysis is conducted with the use of a software program, which is specifically designed for this purpose. The number of sentences that contain keywords related to the three risk categories is counted as the total CRD score, which is transformed to the disclosure index. I have examined the impact of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance mechanisms on the level of CRD based on agency theory. The ordinary least squares regression method with  control for fixed year effects is used to analyse the data, which show that firm size and audit committee have a positive relationship with the level of corporate risk disclosure. The result demonstrates also that there is a negative relationship between family ownership and the level of CRD, and an insignificant relationship between leverage and the level of CRD.

Corporate governance is a highly discussed topic in financial circles. Recent corporate failures have triggered regulatory reforms where the internal audit was given a stronger position. However, this regulatory evolution also brought challenges to internal audit activity. The growing demands and pressure from stakeholders have placed internal auditors in a difficult position of having to serve several stakeholders and sometimes inconsistent ones with different agendas. That is why the aim of this thesis was to examine how regulations have impacted the internal audit within financial institutions with a special focus on internal auditors’ relations with their stakeholders. In order to achieve the aims of this study, qualitative interviews were conducted as they were considered most suitable in order to uncover a deeper meaning and significance regarding the topic. The findings in this study indicate that internal auditing activity within financial institutions faces a multitude of challenges. Beyond having to deal with traditional duties, these institutions now have to incorporate mandatory audits from regulators within their scope of practise as well. This steers them in a direction where they have to satisfy the needs of yet another stakeholder.

O objetivo principal da pesquisa foi investigar quais fatores motivaram empresas brasileiras de capital aberto a adotarem o Comitê de Auditoria como parte integrante de sua estrutura de Governança Corporativa. Como complemento, investigou-se a associação entre características das companhias, como Liquidez, Porte e Emissão de ADR\'s, e a adoção ou não de comitês de auditoria. Para tanto, foi selecionada uma amostra de 100 companhias, extraídas de um universo de 420, com maior volume de negócios entre abril de 2009 e março de 2010. Para esse grupo, foi submetido um questionário a fim de coletar informações referentes à estrutura geral dos comitês de auditoria, bem como informações sobre os motivos que as levaram a implantar o referido comitê. O índice de respondentes foi de 32%. Para analisar os dados dos questionários, a pesquisa foi dividida em duas partes inter-relacionadas. Na primeira, buscou-se interpretar os resultados provenientes do questionário utilizando-se de técnicas estatísticas simples, com o intuito de descrever os resultados. Na segunda, estudou-se as associações entre características das companhias e a opção de elas adotarem ou não o comitê de auditoria em suas estruturas de governança corporativa. A Análise de Correspondência (ANACOR) foi empregada nessa parte. Em relação à primeira parte, pelas respostas das próprias companhias, os principais determinantes para a adoção do comitê de auditoria foram: i) apoiar as atividades do Conselho de Administração; ii) atender à legislação norte-americana - SOX; iii) atender à Resolução do Conselho Monetário Nacional / Banco Central do Brasil; e iv) incrementar o sistema e as práticas de governança corporativa. Em relação aos resultados da segunda parte, de forma geral, os resultados sugerem que empresas com alta liquidez estão fortemente associadas com a adoção de comitês de auditoria e empresas com baixa liquidez estão associadas à ausência de comitês em sua estrutura de governança. Outro resultado obtido foi com relação ao porte das companhias. Pela ANACOR, foi possível verificar a associação de comitês de auditoria e outros comitês do conselho a empresas de médio e grande porte, com uma maior aproximação entre empresas de médio porte. Por fim, observou-se que empresas que emitem ADR\'s cujos níveis de exigências são mais baixos (ADR\'s Nível 1 e Regra 144-A) estão associadas com a ausência de comitês, enquanto que as empresas que emitem ADR\'s Nível 2 e 3, estão associadas com a adoção de comitês em suas estruturas de governança corporativas, mas não necessariamente o comitê de auditoria. Esse resultado pode ser explicado pela flexibilidade existente na legislação norte-americana que possibilita às empresas optarem pela adaptação do Conselho Fiscal às normas da Securities and Exchange Commission. Todavia, é necessário salientar as limitações inerentes à pesquisa. A primeira importante limitação é com relação à amostra, tendo em vista que as companhias não foram selecionadas aleatoriamente, e sim pelo volume de transações. Logo, há um viés de seleção na amostra, cujo resultado direto é a impossibilidade de generalização dos resultados. Em seguida, cabe salientar que as definições apresentadas na pesquisa também podem ser criticadas, tendo em vista que o conceito de governança corporativa está limitado às características do comitê de auditoria. As técnicas estatísticas também podem ser criticadas, pois as análises descritivas e ANACOR não permitem afirmar haver causalidade entre as variáveis estudadas. / The main objective of this research was to investigate which factors motivated Brazilian public companies to adopt the Audit Committee as part of its Corporate Governance organizational structure. Additionally, it was investigated the association between characteristics of companies, such as Liquidness, Size and Issuance of ADRs, and the adoption or lack of audit committees. For this purpose, a sample of 100 companies were selected, drawn from a universe of 420, with higher trade volume between April 2009 and March 2010. For this group, a questionnaire was sent to collect information regarding the overall structure of audit committees, as well data related with the reasons which led them to establish such a committee. The rate of respondents was 32%. To analyze the data, the research was divided into two interrelated parts. In the first session, the results were analyzed based on simple statistical techniques, in order to describe the results. In the second session, the results were analyzed based on associations between the companies\'characteristics as well as the option to adopt them with regards the Audit Committee in their corporate governance organizational structures. The Correspondence Analysis (ANACOR) was used in this session. Based on the survey results of the first session, the main determinants for the adoption of the Audit Committee are: i) to support the Board of Directors activities; ii) to comply with USA SOX law; iii) to comply with the Resolution established by National Monetary Council / Central Bank of Brazil; and iv) to enhance the best practices of Corporate Governance. Moreover, the results of the second session, in general suggested that the companies of high liquidness are strongly associated with Audit Committees adoption while the companies of low liquidness are associated with the absence of committees in its organizational structure. Another result was related to the size of the companies. As per ANACOR, it was possible to verify the association between the Audit Committees and other board of directors committees with companies from middle to large size with slightly trend to middle size companies. Finally, it was observed that companies with ADR\'s launch which requirement levels is low (ADR\'s level 1 and Rule 144-A) are associated with the absence of Audit Committees while the companies with ADR\'s launch with high requirement level (ADR\'s level 2 and 3) are associated with the adoption of its committees on corporate governance structures, but not necessarily the audit committee. This result can be explained for the flexibility of U.S. law that allows the companies to opt for the adaptation of Fiscal Council to the rules of Securities and Exchange Commission. Notwithstanding is necessary to highlight the limitation inherent in this research. The first important limitation is related to the sample used, considering that the companies were not selected randomly, but by the volume of transactions. So there is a selection bias, whose offer the impossibility of generalizing results. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that the presented definitions in the survey could be criticized considering that the Corporate Governance concept is limited by characteristics of the Audit Committees. The statistics techniques could also be criticized once the descriptive analysis and ANACOR couldn\'t guarantee the causality between the study variables.

Författare:                   Marcus Davidsson, Camilla Johansson och Johanna Nilsson Handledare:                 Ola Nilsson Titel:                             Hur hanterar företagen kravet på revisionsutskott? – en studie av fem svenska börsföretag Bakgrund:                   Under sommaren 2008 blev Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning obligatorisk för samtliga svenska företag som är noterade på den svenska börsen. Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning stadgar bland annat att företagens styrelser skall inrätta ett revisionsutskott. Företagen kan dock välja att inte inrätta ett revisionsutskott och då förklara varför, enligt principen ”följ eller förklara”. Syfte:                            Syftet med studien är att öka kunskapen kring hur företag hanterar Svensk kod för bolagsstyrnings krav kring revisionsutskott samt vilken nytta revisionsutskottet upplevs tillföra i styrelsearbetet. Metod:                          En kvalitativ intervjustudie har genomförts. Studien omfattade fem styrelseledamöter från fem börsnoterade företag på OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. Slutsats:                        Studien visar att fyra av de fem företagen som ingått i studien har valt att inrätta revisionsutskott. Majoriteten av dessa har inrättat revisionsutskotten som ett resultat av strävan att följa Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning. Vidare har studien visat att styrelserna har satt samman revisionsutskott på olika sätt, både vad gäller ekonomisk kompetens och oberoende. Merparten av företagen i studien ställer höga krav på vad revisionsutskotten skall utföra för uppgifter och upplever att utskotten tillför nytta i styrelsearbetet.