Investigation of External Audit’s Good Practices in the Context of Corporate Governance - Evidence from Romania

The main objective of this study is to develop an investigation based on an empirical survey over the auditors’ perceptions about the external audit good practices that should be applied or at least recommended in the context of corporate governance. This present study also aims to detect the current applicability of the proposed external audit practices tested through this survey. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, a statistical analysis was conducted based on data obtained from questionnaires submitted to a significant sample of Romanian auditors, all respondents having the quality of members of Chambers of Financial Auditors of Romania, which is the main professional body that has responsibilities in coordinating the audit activity in Romanian context. In spite of the lower response rate, the value of the paper is argued by the fact that the findings are relevant for both academics and practitioners, because it could represent a relevant starting point in developing an integrated framework of good audit practices, including external audit practices and offering, in the same time, potential suggestions for enhancing external audit practices in the corporate governance’s area, an area which has grown very fast in the last years, since the collapse of Enron in 2001 and the financial scandals of other companies from different countries, which strongly affect the investor confidence in the reliability of its investments.