Investigation of Auditors' Opinions about their Responsibility for Firm's Going Concern in Saudi Arabia's Market

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which external auditors are responsible for Assessment of an Entity's ability to continue as a Going Concern. The study was conducted in Saudi Arabia. The study sample was based on external auditors operating in Saudi Arabia during the study period 2016-2017. The data has been collected through a questionnaire and financial annual reports of listed companies. According to the International Standards on Audit (ISA 701, 570 and 510), the external auditors must mention in their report about their doubt, if any, regarding an entity's ability to continue as a going concern. However, the result of the current study shows that auditors are mostly not reporting about the doubtfulness of the entity's ability to continue as a going concern. Generally, the personal relationship between the auditors and the clients influence the non-implementation of International Standards on Audit (ISA 701, 570 and 510) regarding entity's ability to continue as a going concern. Based on this result, we recommend training of auditors, as well as protecting the independency of the external auditors according to International Standards Audit IAS 701.