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Audit Committee Characteristics and Monitoring
Effectiveness. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, April 2009, Pages: 116
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act significantly expanded
the role of the audit committee as monitor of the
firm’s financial reporting. This study
examines the contribution of key audit committee
characteristics; independence, financial expertise,
firm provided support of the audit committee, and
oversight to the effectiveness of audit committee
monitoring. The study uses a proprietary database of
survey responses by audit committee directors and
firms’ corporate secretaries, in a period just prior
to and in an initial period post-compliance with the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Results provide evidence that an
independent audit committee requires firm-specific
financial knowledge. A possible explanation is this
type of competency is needed to offset the valuable
contribution otherwise provided by inside
directors. In some settings, firm provided
support in the form of training and sufficiency of
information also improves monitoring effectiveness.
The findings should be useful to market participants
and regulators as they evaluate the efficacy of the
Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, and audit committee
directors as they conduct evaluations of their own
practices.
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