審計委員會之設置及其品質對關鍵查核事項揭露之影響

The Impacts of the Establishment and Quality of Audit Committee on the Disclosure of Key Audit Matters

為提升查核報告透明度和資訊價值，審計準則公報第57號要求上市（櫃）公司會計師，自2016年起增加關鍵查核事項段（Key Audit Matters，KAM），說明依其專業判斷，對本期財務報表查核最為重要之事項。除會計師外，負責與會計師溝通查核報告的主要治理單位－審計委員會，亦於KAM的揭露上扮演重要角色。本研究以2016及2017年台灣上市（櫃）公司為研究對象，探討審計委員會之設置及其品質對公司關鍵查核事項揭露之影響。研究結果顯示，相較於採監察人機制，設置審計委員會公司的KAM，在總字數及其事項內容有較詳細之說明；然而，設置審計委員會對於因應查核程序說明及KAM項目數的影響較不顯著。審計委員會整體品質則對於KAM總字數、因應查核程序說明及KAM項目數等詳細度衡量指標，皆有顯著正面影響。以個別品質指標觀之，審計委員會勤勉程度和其成員學經歷背景對於KAM揭露最為重要。

To enhance the transparency and information value of audit reports, the statement of Auditing Standard No. 57 requires auditors of listed companies to include a key audit matter section (Key Audit Matters, KAM) to communicate the most important or most challenging matters of the current year's audit. In addition to professional judgments, audit committees who discussed the audit reports with their auditors, play an important role in the disclosure of KAM. The current study explores the impacts of establishing audit committees and their quality on the disclosure of key audit matters for listed companies in 2016 and 2017. The results show that compared with the supervisory mechanism, KAM of companies with audit committees included more detailed descriptions. Further, the quality of the audit committee, especially the diligence and the academic background of its members, significantly impacted the KAM disclosure.