JEFMS Journal

ABSTRACT:

Acceptance of corporate financial reports has greatly reduced, and financial statement users doubt the credibility and usefulness of the information contents of corporate financial reports. Existing studies had reported inconsistences and evidenced inconclusiveness of possible effect of independent of auditors and ethical behaviour in enhancing reliability and relevance of corporate financial reports. Consequently, in extending the frontiers, the effect of independent of auditors and ethical behaviours on corporate financial reports of listed companies in Nigeria is investigated by this study. Survey research design, using self-structured questionnaire was employed by this study. The population of the study consist of all the 66 manufacturing companies, while sample size of 414 was obtained using Yaro Yamane (1976) formula. A total of 356 valid questionnaires were retrieved from the online respondents, reflecting 86% of the expected respondents. Cronbach Alpha reliability analysis. The study found that independent of auditors and ethical behaviours had a positive significant effect on corporate financial reports (AdjR2 = 0.019; F (3, 341) = 3.340; p-value = 0.019). The study concluded that independence of auditors and ethical behaviours had a positive effect on corporate financial report of listed in Nigeria. The study recommended that auditors should exercise professional independence, competence and avoid unethical practices to enhance corporate financial reports.

KEYWORDS:

Audit independence, corporate financial reports, Ethical behaviours, Faithful representation, Relevance, Reliability

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