The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on Audit Report Time Lag: Evidence From Ghana

The study examines the impact of audit committee characteristics on audit reporting time lag of Ghanaian publicly traded companies. We used the size of the audit committee, gender diversity, and financial expertise to measure the characteristics of the audit committee as against the number of days between financial year-end date and audit report completion. The study predicted and found a negative relationship between audit committee gender diversity and audit report time lag. Also, a negative association between the audit committee financial expertise and audit report time lag was established. Furthermore, a negative association was affirmed between audit report time lag and gender diversity of the committee. The study therefore concluded that the audit committee characteristics leads to audit efficiency indicating that audit committee promotes the prompt delivery of the audit report. As a result, the study suggests that companies consider variegating their audit committee board on these characteristics. Keywords: Audit Committee, Audit report time lag, Board size, financial expertise, Gender diversity. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/13-4-01 Publication date: February 28th 2022