AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS) COMPLIANCE AMONG LISTED COMPANIES IN NIGERIA: MIXED METHOD APPROACH
A sound financial reporting system, supported by high quality accounting standards strengthened by a solid regulatory, governance and ethical framework, is a pre-requisite for economic development. Adoption of IFRS has significantly led to greater consistency in recognition and measurement of accounting information. Many companies claim that their financial statements are prepared in accordance with IFRSs but the reality is different due to varying levels of compliance which have been attributed to the absence of “bright-line” rules coupled with the failure to adhere with this corporate governance structure. These consequently affect the quality of financial information, limit the potential effect of IFRS and impair the ability of investors and other market participants from making rightful decisions. Among all the corporate governance mechanisms, the audit committee has been recognized as the most important with regards to corporate financial reporting responsibilities. However, the presence of an audit committee does not necessarily indicate their efficiency or effectiveness but their individual characteristics. These motivate the study to examine the impact of audit committee characteristics on the level of IFRS compliance among listed companies in Nigeria using convergent parallel research design of a mixed method for collection of quantitative and qualitative data concurrently and analyses the two data sets separately and merging the results during interpretations. 522 annual reports of 87 listed companies in Nigeria from 2012 to 2017 were employed and analyzed using both panel data regression and the qualitative data obtained through interview of 7 staffers of FRC of Nigeria, NSE,CAC and listed companies in Nigeria were narratively analyzed. The findings of the study revealed that audit committee expertise (α=0.0459, P<0.1), and audit committee gender (α=0.0464, P<0.1) have a statistically significant impact on IFRS compliance.
