Audit Committee’s Role in Moderating the Effect of Financial Distress Towards Going Concern Audit Opinion

Abstract

Auditors are required to provide services in auditing financial statements presented by management and provide audit opinions on the fairness of the presentation of financial statements. Sometimes, in reality, management and auditors have their interests so that each party can achieve the goals. The conflict of interest appears on the independence of the auditor in issuing audit opinions, especially the audit opinion with the going concern explanatory paragraph. The audit committee, as a supervisory board, will continue to maintain the independence of the auditor in issuing audit opinions with the going concern explanatory paragraph. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the audit committee in maintaining the independence of external auditors issuing audit opinions, especially the audit opinion with the going concern explanatory paragraph. Based on the purposive sampling method obtained a sample of 168 companies. Testing the hypothesis in this study using logistic regression and moderated regression analysis. The results showed that financial distress had a significant negative effect for the audit opinion with going concern explanatory paragraph. Furthermore, the audit committee was not able to strenghten the relationship of financial distress on the audit opinion with a going-concern explanatory paragraph.