This study aims to contribute to an understanding of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process in an emerging market, using the case of Malaysia. Malaysia offers an interesting and important setting as Malaysian companies are highly concentrated and politically sensitive. In particular, the study seeks to: (i) examine the level of political connections represented in the audit committees associated with the level of audit fees incurred by Malaysian public listed companies; and (ii) examine whether politically connected audit committees have an impact on the audit process. Currently, there is scant evidence on the influence of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process. The study draws upon agency and resource dependence theories, which suggest that politically connected audit committees serve two important functions: monitoring on behalf of the shareholders, and providing resources to the companies. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method approach (archival data analysis and interviews) has been adopted. Four hypotheses are tested: (1) There is a positive relationship between the proportion of audit committee members who are senior government officers (SGO) and audit fees; (2) There is a positive relationship between the proportions of audit committee members who are politicians and audit fees; (3) There is a positive relationship between the percentage of government shares and audit fees; and (4) There is a positive relationship between audit committee characteristics (independence, size, meeting and financial expertise) and audit fees. In addition, the knowledge obtained from the interviews with Big 4 auditors and members of audit committees from the selected companies provide further insights on the influence of political connections on the audit process. The results of the study indicate that politically connected audit committees (identified by members who are either senior government officers or politicians) have a significant association with the incidence of higher audit fees. This suggests that politically connected audit committees are able to capitalise on their connections to influence companies and create direct demand for the auditors to increase their audit effort, as measured by audit fees. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant relationship between government shares and audit fees. This result may be explained by the fact that government shares are managed by a variety of institutions on behalf of the government, and differences in the objectives and characteristics of the institutions that administer the shares can weaken the demand for higher efforts from auditors. An in-depth analysis of the interviews further reveals that political connections do affect the audit process. It appears that the existence of political connections leads to an increase in audit work such in a variety of ways, such as auditor-client negotiations, private meetings with audit committees and re-engineering the scope and planning of the actual audit work. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is that companies highly value political connections to obtain external resources given the uncertainties in the business environment. Also, the findings highlight the need for stronger corporate governance to mitigate the higher inherent audit risks in politically connected companies.

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Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering Management )--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2008. / Thesis Advisor(s): Welch, William J. ; Rhoades, Mark M. "September 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 3, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-68). Also available in print.

Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2004

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

In the mini-dissertation, we consider the potential effectiveness of CEDAW in reaching its stated goal of eliminating discrimination against women. We consider and analyse the potential impact of the Convention in the fight against inequality and discrimination against women, and the research examined CEDAW Committee decisions critically to find out its potential impacts and relevance to African women. This mini-dissertation analyses specific forms of discrimination in three selected African states and, found that: (1) women still suffer discrimination in access to education through low female enrolment and, the restriction on particular areas of study, (3) that in employment, women are discriminated against through inequality in payment, restriction of women from some sectors of the economy and; in lower opportunities for women as compared to men, (4) that in relation to politics and public life, women still are discriminated against and; they cannot easily access public office and are, underrepresented in parliament, cabinet and in the private sector, except in Rwanda where women are well represented, (5) that women are discriminated against in access to health care services including reproductive care which is characterized by lower female life expectancy, lower access to health care services especially in rural areas and; high mortality rate amongst female infants, (6) and that women in marriages and families are still not treated equally with men on issues of divorce proceedings, child support, polygamy and early marriage. We discuss and analyse the instruments protecting women against discrimination at the global and regional levels. We illustrated that the instruments effectively protects women against discrimination but were, inadequately implemented or utilised by women. We concluded as follows; (1) that the instruments effectively protected women from discrimination in education, employment, health care services, family and marital life and; in politics and public life. The issue is the implementation of the instruments by states parties and, (2) that in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, that the problem of reservations by states parties have greatly affected the effectiveness of the Convention. As to the CEDAW Committee jurisprudence, we discovered: (1) that the CEDAW Committee has done enough to protect women against discrimination in all spheres of life with groundbreaking decisions and; all that is required now is proper implementation of decisions, (2) that there are presently no communications to the CEDAW Committee from African women yet, (3) that most communications submitted to the Committee have been declared inadmissible for reasons ranging from non-exhaustion of domestic remedies to the facts occurring prior to the entering into force of the Optional Protocol in the state party complained against and, that most cases were lost on procedural errors, (4) that the Committee is very strong in cases of domestic violence and discrimination in access to health care services. In conclusion, the research identifies a number of weaknesses in the Convention and proposes a range of amendments that would facilities the use of the CEDAW Committee by African women. We also identified the implications of the CEDAW Committee jurisprudence on Africa. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.