내부회계관리제도가 외부감사에 미친 영향 - 감사보고시차를 중심으로 -

This study investigates the effect of internal control system over financial state- ments audit in terms of audit report lag and audit time. To investigate, we used a sample from unlisted and listed Korean companies over the period of 2003∼2006.The results are as follows. First, the audit report lag increased after implementation of internal control over financial reporting. This is because the implementation of internal control system over financial reporting which requires more responsibilities and obligations led auditors to expand their effort. Second, the audit report lag of the companies in weak internal control was signi- ficantly longer compared to other companies. The auditors appear to maintain an acceptable level of overall audit risk in the presence of weak internal control by reducing detection risk. The greater risk related to an internal control weakness may cause auditors to reduce the detection risk through additional audit efforts resulting in longer audit report lag. This higher level of audit efforts prevents the serious mistakes or frauds in the financial statements and made it possible to maintain adequate quality of accounting information. This study contributes to internal control over financial reporting research by showing the relationship between internal control and external audit process using audit report lag and audit time. It also contributes to audit report lag research by adding internal control variable to the factors influencing audit report lag.