ABSTRACT

This study is a comparative study of the pre- and post-IFRS periods, necessitated by the need to ensure timely arrival of financial reports to users despite the more-information disclosure demand of IFRS and an effective audit committee compliance demand of corporate governance for companies. The study employed ex-post facto research design and utilizes a panel data report of the annual financial statement of fifty-seven firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for 2006-2011 and 2013- 2018. The study uses multivariate regression analysis of panel generalized least square to address the problem of heteroskedasticity of data. The study reveals that audit committee attributes significantly influence audit report lag upon IFRS-adoption. Besides, audit committee attributes, such as audit committee meeting and the audit committee independence increased the amount of time auditors spend on their audit work. This study concludes that audit committee meeting and audit committee independence significantly influence ARL of firms in the post-IFRS adoption period; and recommends that boards and managers should consider audit committee meeting and audit committee independence as important audit committee attributes that reduce ARL. The study also recommends the inclusion of more financial experts on audit committees which may translate to fewer meetings without compromising committee independence. Keywords: Audit committee attributes, audit report lag, IFRS adoption, financial reports