The impact of the characteristics of the audit committee on the timing of financial reports and its reflection on investors’ decisions

Presented to

The Council of the College of Administration and Economics – Karbala University It is part of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of science in accounting

By

Sara Sabah Kamil

Assistant Prof Dr.

Hussen Amran Naji Al-Refiay

The research aims to show the impact of the characteristics of the audit committee (independence – number of meetings – scientific and practical experience – number of members – social diversity – multiplicity of membership) on the timing of financial reports and investors’ decisions. To achieve the goal of this study, the study relied on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection, 300 questionnaires were distributed and 202 valid questionnaires were retrieved from them for analysis, and for data analysis, the Curt Seven-Point Likert scale was used, in order to know the extent of the responses of the research sample according to the gradation (strongly agree, totally agree, agree to some extent, neutral, do not agree strongly, do not agree, do not agree to some extent), as the most widely used scale to measure opinions and balance scores. The study indicated that the scientific and practical experience of the members of the Audit Committee and the independence greatly affect the timing of issuing financial reports, and based on the results and conclusions reached by the research, the research recommends the necessity of defining the concepts of independence that must be available in the members of the audit committees and emphasizing the absence of interests or self-benefits for its members In order to be able to exercise its role effectively, and this is taken into account through the establishment of an authority setting clear and specific conditions for independence and taking into account the availability of scientific and practical expertise in the members of the audit committees when selecting the members of the audit committee because of this positive impact on the timing of issuing financial reports, which has a positive impact on investors’decisions.