Factors affecting the auditor independence in financial statements audit in Vietnam

摘要

Financial information that meets the user’s requirements must be accurate, sufficient, timely and reliable. Consequently, national laws and international auditing standards require the auditor to provide confidence in the audited financial information. To achieve this, the auditor independence must be ensured. The objective of this study is to identify factors affecting the auditor independence in financial statements audit in Vietnam. The identified factors are audit tenure; the provision of non-audit services; economic dependence; employment with audit clients; competition within the external audit market; the risk to the auditor from the provision of poor-quality audit services, and the disclosure of financial relations. Data of the study were collected through a survey of auditor, audit firms and users of financial statements such as managers, investors, accountants, etc. The findings are the basis for proposing recommendations to more enhance the auditor independence and audit quality in financial statements in VietNam.