Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation and Audit Costs: A Survey of Auditing Firms in Bahrain

Abstract

The Purpose of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of audit firms on the vexed issue of mandatory rotation of auditors in kingdom of Bahrain. A hand administered questionnaire survey of 102auditors, and accounting professionals was undertaken. Descriptive statistics were used to find out the most common reasons why respondents were agreed or disagreed with the idea of introduction of mandatory rotation of auditors in Bahrain and its effects on audit costs. The findings of the study indicate that there is an association between mandatory rotation of audit firms and audit costs. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were also conducted to test the possibility of confounding effects arising from participants’ background and experience. None of these variables were found to have a confounding effect on the experimental results. The results also reveal that the adoption of rotation rules wasn’t given enough attention among the auditing firms in Bahrain. Finally, this study contributes to global debate on mandatory rotation of auditors from the view point of an emerging economy. Keywords: