감사위원회의 권한과 기능에 대한 비판적 고찰

Under the Korean Commercial Code, an audit committee is established as a committee of a board of directors and granted the same authority as an auditor. While audit systems vary across the countries, the recent trend goes toward recommending or mandating establishment of an audit committee as a key factor of corporate governance. Accordingly, many countries adopted an audit committee reflecting their respective traditional system and culture by way of legislation or best practice code. Audit committees in the U.S. and EU function assisting monitoring performed by boards of directors. By contrast, Under the Korean Commercial Code, the audit committee’s right to audit is deemed separate from the board of directors’right to monitor and supervise. However, from the perspective that the audit committee is a sub-committee of the board of directors, it’s difficult to treat the audit committee’s audit right as independent of the board of director. In reality, it would not be easy for the audit committee to exercise powerful audit right against directors or the board of directors. The belief that the audit committee whose members are directors including outside directors can perform audit independent of the board of directors results in requiring the audit committee of almost impossible tasks. Allocation of authorities between an audit committee and a board of directors need to be resolved. Afterwards, authority and the scope of functions of the audit committee could be confirmed. The authority and functions of the audit committee need to be adjusted as clear and feasible as possible, which leads the audit committee to settle down as an effective corporate governance system.