An Evaluation of the Audit Expectation Gap in Nigeria

This paper investigates factors contributing to the audit expectation gap in Nigeria. It is widely believed that auditors are largely responsible for the business failures and liquidity problems that affect the going concern status of companies. This perception may lead to loss of credibility in the information revealed by accountants. The study examines what auditors, preparers and users of financial statements perceive concerning statutory audit and other audit related issues, focusing on four hundred (400) respondents made up of a hundred each of accountants, external auditors, bankers and investors in Lagos and Ogun State, Nigeria. The factors contributing to this gap that are of particular concern to the researcher in this study are uncertainty about the responsibilities of external auditors, misunderstanding of audit report messages, uncertainty about the extent to which audit reports may be used in making investment decisions and independence of auditors. The study revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between opinion of auditors, preparers and users of audited financial statements with respect to the statutory role of external auditors, reliability on audit reports for investment decision making, nature and meaning of audit report messages scores and independence scores. From the findings, it is recommended that users should be educated on the responsibilities of auditors, the extent to which they can rely on auditor’s report and nature of audit services. Also, the number of years an auditor can provide audit services to a particular client be reduced and there should be limits on auditor’s provision of audit and non-audit services at the same time to a particular client