Corporate Governance & Auditing

Globalization of audit committees as a common mechanism of corporate governance is one of the most significant developments during the last two decades in several countries (including United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada). Following the recent saga of corporate failures and the dramatic collapse of Enron, Worldcom, Cendant and HIH on the international arena and National Bank of Fiji locally (Fiji Islands), it provides continuing evidence of failures of corporate governance at all levels including senior management, boards of directors, the audit committee, external auditors, financial regulators and the accounting and auditing profession. Probably, at present this is the hottest issue and it provides a watershed opportunity for this study to contribute to our understanding of the value and potential of auditing as a mechanism in corporate governance in the context of the agency theory approach.