An Investigation of the Relationship Between Selected Corporate- Auditor Attributes and the Timeliness of Annual Reports of Companies Quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange

Abstract

Timeliness has been identified as one of the qualitative features of financial statements of an organisation. This attribute requires that financial statements of an organisation should be released promptly after a financial year-end before they loose capacity to influence decisions. Differential timing of reports has been observed to have implications on the expected profitability of firms, stock price reactions and has also been examinedtas an indicator of financial distress. Given the importance of timeliness, the variables associated with differential timing of reports has attracted the attention of researchers. This study sought to find out whether there is a relationship between selected corporate-auditor attributes- namely, audit firm size, change of auditors, extra-ordinary items, audit qualification and the timeliness of annual reports of companies quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Apart from change of auditors, the other attributes did not portray a relationship with reporting delay.