THE INFLUENCE OF AUDIT COMMITTEE ATTRIBUTES ON THE QUALITY OF FINANCIAL REPORTING EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIAN BANKS
This study aims at examining the influence of audit committee attributes on the quality of financial reporting (QFR) in Nigerian banks. The study adopts a content analysis method in realizing the above objectives. The researcher constructed measurement check list was used in extracting data from audited annual reports of ten selected banks for the period 2006 to 2013. The dependent variable of study was the QFR, which was measured using the IFRS qualitative characteristics model. The independent variables consist of audit committee attributes and control variables (board attributes) were gleaned from the corporate governance section of the annual reports. Inferential statistics, namely; correlations and regression analyses were used in analyzing the data and testing the hypotheses raised in the study. The regression analysis result shows a t value of 1.861 at 5% probability level, against the t cal of 2.111. Specifically, the result shows that audit committee independence (p= .017) meeting attendance (p= .040) audit committee size (p= .059) and the existence of a written charter (p= .007) significantly influence the QFR in Nigerian banks. Accordingly, we conclude that certain audit committee attributes namely; independence, meeting attendance, size and the existence of a written charter exert significant influence on the QFR than other attributes.