合併報表責任分攤式查核報告與會計師出具繼續經營有疑慮的查核意見

The Relationship between Shared Audit Report of Combined Financial Statements and the Auditor's Going Concern Reporting Decisions

本研究旨在以集團主辦會計師對具有財務危機的集團企業，出具對繼續經營有疑慮查核報告（GCO）的機率，作為觀察會計師獨立性衡量變數，探討集團企業若將其組成個體委由同一家會計師事務所查核，是否會影響會計師的獨立性。實證結果顯示，集團企業所有組成個體若委由集團主辦會計師事務所查核，雖然會增加對單一客戶的依賴程度，但因出具GCO的決策，對集團主辦會計師的潛在聲譽及訴訟損失影響重大，因而仍能維持其獨立性，不影響對具財務危機的集團企業出具GCO。此外，若以集團企業委託其他會計師查核的權重（以委外查核組成個體的總資產占合併總資產的比率）衡量，可發現委外查核權重與GCO呈非線性關係。當委外查核權重小於臨界值（小於22.4%），可發現其與GCO呈顯著的負相關，上述結論仍成立。但當委外查核權重大於臨界值，委外查核權重愈大，集團主辦會計師對集團企業的經濟程度愈小，且對集團整體的資訊掌握愈不足，出具GCO的機率愈高。但若參照Chi and Chin (2011)將部分修正式無保留意見與其他修正式查核意見作為應變數（文後簡稱MAO），並無法發現當委外查核權重超過臨界點時，會計師會因委外查比重的增加而愈能維持其獨立性。

"The purpose of this study is to determine whether the involvement component auditors will influence the propensity of the principal auditor to issue going concern opinions (GCO) to a group company in financial distress. The empirical results show that the principal auditors are more likely to issue GCO in case where all components of a group company are audited solely by the principal auditor. It indicates that despite economic reliance on a single client, the principal auditor can maintain the independence because of reputation concerns and litigation costs. Further analysis reveals a non-linear relationship between the proportion of audit work performed by component auditors (the ratio of total assets audited by the component auditors to total consolidated assets) and GCO. In case where the proportion is below a critical value (22.4%), the proportion shows a significant negative correlation with GCO. In case where the proportion exceeds the critical value, the greater the proportion, the less the economic dependence in the group company, the higher the chance for the principal auditor to issue GCO. Nonetheless, if we refer to Chi and Chin (2011), which treats the modified unqualified and modified audit opinion as a dependent variable (MAO), the relationship between the proportion of audit work performed by component auditors and the probability of GCO issuance was no longer evident ."