Australian audit committees: do they meet best practice guidelines?

The results of a study of Australia's largest 250 companies' audit committees in 1998 and 2000 are reported. the audit committees were scrutinized on the bases of audit committee independence and the frequency of meetings. Australia's audit committees did not score highly on either criterion and most companies fell short of best practice guidelines. In 1998, 37.8% of companies met best practice guidelines with respect to independence. in both 1998 and 2001, most audit committees met less than 4 times. It is puzzling and of concern that Australian audit committees appear to have deteriorated in terms of independence and frequency of meetings between 1998 and 2001