Purpose – The paper aims to analyse audit service quality attributes that were perceived to be important in compulsory audit tendering (CAT) in local councils in New South Wales (NSW). It focuses principally on whether CAT leads to an impairment of auditor independence and audit quality.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted of 235 NSW local council finance professionals and 35 local council internal auditors in May 2006.
Findings – The most important attributes in evaluating audit service quality were industry expertise, audit firm experience with a council, technical competence, independence, ethical standards and due care. The least important attributes were scepticism, freshness of perspective, audit firm size, and non-audit services. There is considerable consistency in the findings with those in non-CAT contexts.
See full Details.
