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PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges for auditors to provide high-quality audits. These challenges pose interesting questions about the ability of auditors to obtain audit evidence and ensure appropriate conclusions. In response to these questions, this paper aims to examine how self-efficacy affects the auditors' effort and performance during COVID-19 and how remote audit proficiency helps them respond to these challenges, as reflected in more effort and high-quality performance. Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, this study used a quantitative approach in which 193 Saudi auditors were surveyed and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. FindingsThe authors demonstrated that self-efficacy is positively associated with the perceived audit effort and performance during the COVID-19 crisis. The results also showed that remote audit proficiency plays a significant role during COVID-19 as it can help auditors exert more effort and perform audit activities effectively. This study also found that remote audit mediates the association between self-efficacy and both effort and performance during COVID-19. These results are also asserted under several robust analyses. Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, these findings provide the first evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on auditors and have implications for both theory and practice.
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The times require auditors to change, auditors no longer carry out the audit process using a manual system, but must switch to computer-based auditing. Especially in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced auditors to conduct remote audits, which of course had to be computerbased. Our research focuses on what factors can influence computer-based audit quality and what factors can moderate these factors. Our research uses independent variables, namely remote audit implementation, auditor performance and professionalism and in addition to using information technology literacy as a moderating variable. Our research is a quantitative study, using primary data distributed through questionnaires to auditors working in public accounting firms. For statistical data processing, we use the ordinary least square. The results of our study indicate that remote audit implementation, auditor performance and professionalism have a significant effect on computer-based audit quality and information technology literacy is able to moderate and strengthen the influence of these three variables. © 2022 IEEE.
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The pandemic of Covid-19 requires people in any profession to do large-scale social restrictions, this also lead in financial/external auditors experiencing difficulties in conducting audits in the common daily activity, which is by visiting clients physically to make observations. In this condition, online observation using remote audit become one of the solution. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of external auditors in transition to remote auditing due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The data collection technique is using primary data from questionnaire. We distribute questionnaire to Public Accounting Firms located in DKI Jakarta using simple random sampling method technique. The method for data analysis is using partial least squares conducted with Software of SmartPLS 3. The result of this study indicates that remote audit efficiency and remote audit efficiency have positive and significant effect on audit quality. Meanwhile, institutional support has no significant effect on audit quality. © 2022 IEEE.
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In order to face industrial revolution 4.0 auditors must start developing their skills. In the past, auditors have used remote audit only to reach remote places. However, currently Covid-19 comes and encourages even more the use of technology and provides an opportunity to rethink the way audits are conducted. In this study, researchers wanted to know how remote audit, computer literacy and audit software skill has affected audit quality. This research is quantitative in nature, by processing data using primary data obtained from distributing questionnaires to auditors who work at public accounting firms in Jabodetabek. Statistical analysis used multiple linear regression, previously carried out a feasibility test through validity, reliability and classical assumption tests. The results showed that the variables of remote audit, computer literacy and audit software skill had a significant effect on the audit quality. © 2022 ACM.
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Auditors must begin to develop their skills to face industry 4.0. The spread of Covid-19 has further encouraged auditors to conduct remote audits and provides an opportunity to rethink the way audits are conducted. In this study, the researcher wanted to find out how the influence of competence, professionalism, and audit deadlines on the effectiveness of remote audits. This research is quantitative, with data processing using primary data obtained from distributing questionnaires to auditors who work at Public Accounting Firms in Jakarta. Statistical analysis using multiple linear regression, before conducting a feasibility test through validity, reliability and classical assumption tests. The results showed that the variables of competence, professionalism, and audit time limit had a significant effect on the effectiveness of remote auditing. © 2022 ACM.
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The era of industrial revolution 4.0 has introduced new technology that makes all of the activities in this world change. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has made social distancing which make auditors must adopt technology digital to be able perform remote audit. Based on that explanation, we conducted research on the effect of remote audit, work experience, work overload, transformational leadership, and emotional intelligence on auditor performance. Our research used quantitative method, we use primary data from questionnaires that were distributed to auditors who work in Public Accounting Firms in Jabodetabek. The data analysis method used was Structural Equation Model (SEM) based on Partial Least Square (PLS) with SmartPLS 3.2.9 software. Our results showed that work experience, transformational leadership, and emotional intelligence have a significant effect on auditor work performance, while remote audit and work overload have no significant effect on auditor performance. © 2022 ACM.
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The rapid evolution of technology has massively changed and shaped audit work culture. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak significantly changed audit and control activities, encouraging auditors to audit clients remotely and forcing auditors to adopt advanced digital technology, especially blockchain-based technology. Blockchain is one decentralized, transparent, and immutable technology that plays an essential role and has an aggressive impact in the audit field. The implementation and adoption of cognitive technologies such as blockchain in the remote audit process allow auditors to access various client data and information in real-time, ensure audit data integrity, review and process data documentation quickly, obtaining data directly without third parties that make it easier for auditors to obtain audit evidence instantly and accurately in detecting any anomalies. This research aims to identify and navigate how blockchain assists auditors in performing remote audits, ensuring data integrity, detecting fraudulent financial reporting, elaborating on factors that influence the auditor's success in using blockchain, and identifying challenges auditors face during blockchain utilization in their remote audits. This research used a descriptive qualitative approach by obtaining primary data from profound interview results with several auditors experienced in using blockchain. We also used secondary data from journals, papers, articles, books, and relevant websites. The research findings showed that blockchain's unique characteristics greatly assist auditors in conducting remote audits, ensuring audit data integrity, and detecting fraudulent financial reporting in various ways. Furthermore, various factors influence blockchain utilization, such as human resources aspects, the effectiveness of the IT control environment, and the CPA size firm. Lastly, auditors should face several challenges in the present and future. © 2022 ACM.
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In the context of COVID-19, adoption of teleworking challenges companies' culture and social interaction to foster a creative and innovative workplace. The article aims to identify the auditors' perception of different factors that influence work adaptability in remote audit activity. The research method is based on multivariate data analysis that consist of correspondence analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and generalised linear ordinal regression. On one hand, findings emphasise that auditors' perception on the work efficiency of auditors in remote audits is significantly influenced by the digitalization degree of audit activities. On the other hand, the research outlines the main threats and opportunities of remote auditing in the context of the current pandemic restrictions. Where auditors perceive the benefits of remote audit, they appreciate positively the degree of adaptability and work efficiency as regards teleworking. Opportunities perceived lead to enhanced audit activity outcome if audit companies embrace emergent technologies in the new digital workplace. Nevertheless, as transition to remote audit determines increased auditors' liability and audit risks, auditors are more cautious and sometimes reluctant about future scenarios of remote audit, if innovative emerging audit technologies and integrated GRCs are not used or are not properly implemented. Whatever the future holds for the new digital audit workplace, it is obvious that auditors working from home face specific challenges, because what they earn in efficiency, they lose in benefits that are harder to quantify, such as innovative thinking and creativity. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The COVID-19 pandemic saw pharma industry auditing move increasingly online and in place of on-site visits, we became familiar with virtual checks and inspections. Some auditors now say that virtual auditing could become a permanent solution, but deeper analysis shows that clients are not in favour of this option, says Alasdair Leckie, Operations Manager at Rephine Ltd. © 2022 TeknoScienze. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes of the usual procedures in the clinical trials conduct, as well as to modifications of the relevant study documentation, which also affected regular quality assurance activities ensuring the safety of clinical trial par-ticipants, compliance with good clinical practice, and the integrity and validity of the clinical trial data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper deals with the ethical guidelines and legal regu-lations that govern the conduct of clinical trials and discusses the ethical implications that arose from the forced adjustments of routine processes and procedures in the clinical trial conduct during the COVID-19 public health emergency. The paper also reflects on the ethical conse-quences of conducting clinical trials during the public health emergency, as well as on means of performing quality assurance activities and a regular oversight of clinical research. © 2022, Czech Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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This study aims to analyze the factors that affect the implementation of a remote audit with the UTAUT model. This study uses a survey method for data collection and uses SmartPLS 3 for data processing. The population of this study is auditors who work at a Public Accounting Firm in DKI Jakarta and use remote auditing while working. A sample of 90 respondents was obtained by purposive sampling. The results showed that the convenience of online access, performance expectations, and social influences significantly affected behavioral intentions. However, effort expectations had no significant impact on behavioral intentions. This study also shows that behavioral intentions significantly affect usage behavior, while the facilitation condition has no significant effect on the behavior of using remote audits. © 2022 ACM.
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Auditing is one of the most important stages in evaluating the effectiveness of an Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS), which is also recognized as a Knowledge Management System (KMS). According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the audit process is part of the evaluation element, where the auditor must evaluate the OSH performance. The traditional audit might not be able to be conducted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) scenario, therefore the remote audit is being viewed as a viable solution to ensuring the audit process continues. The solution could also be utilized beyond the pandemic period as it may become one of the effective method for the audit process. The paper describes how the OSHMS can be remotely audited utilizing Mixed Reality (MR) applications in a design thinking manner. To test the approach, preliminary data was collected in an OSH office. The findings of this paper will aid stakeholders in the relevant context in making investment decisions for digitising their OSH audit process in order to create a future-ready ecosystem. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has dramatically changed the life of both individuals and corporate businesses. Besides the health fears of the pandemic, there are sizable challenges for some jobs that habitually deliver their services face-to-face, disrupting the quality of service. In particular, external auditors, the most critical and reliable accreditors of financial reports, are in an unprecedented situation to conduct audit works and collect sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. To capture how COVID-19 affects auditors in Saudi Arabia, an online questionnaire was developed and distributed from April to August 2021 via email to all 417 auditors/audit firms registered with the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants (SOCPA). This dataset contains responses from 193 auditors, in four major sections: demographic information (7 items); audit effort during COVID-19 (3 items); auditor performance during COVID-19 (7 items); and remote audit proficiency (6 items). It may serve for theoretical and practical assessment for auditors in the time of COVID-19, for example, evaluating how auditors conduct their work during the lockdown and how remote audit proficiency impacts the effort and performance of auditors. In addition, it can be used to assess the differences between auditors by considering the moderating effect of their personal characteristics on the impact of remote audit proficiency on both effort and performance.
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Goal: This paper presents a case study in which the practice of Internal Process Safety Audit of the studied company needed to develop a system of remote audits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design / Methodology / Approach: The system was analyzed in the light of recent theoretical references, having all its phases described, as well as its results and future prospects. Results: The systematic approach involved the development of specific procedures for planning and carrying out audits using a digital platform. The practice was implemented from March 2020 through August 2021. It was approved by the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) and is currently used as a reference for other operators in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) in Brazil. Limitations of the investigation: The choice of a unique case study, restricted to a practice adopted since the beginning of the pandemic, brought some theoretical-methodological limitations. The authors chose to adopt participant observations due to the inclusion of one of the authors in the process of conducting the audits. Practical implications: The main contribution of this study focuses on the results of the critical analyses carried out to find the strengths and opportunities for improvement that could be adopted by organizations that have similar processes. Originality / Value: The added value of this study refers to the scope of the remote audit, as it is about Process Safety. The studies presented so far refer mostly to remote certification audits or maintenance of the quality management system, with emphasis on ISO 9001. © 2022, Associacao Brasileira de Engenharia de Producao. All rights reserved.
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The paper focuses on conducting clinical trials on medicinal products for human use during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought entirely new ethical dilemmas to clinical research professionals, as well as to the general public. Growing ethical concerns emphasized the need for partially modified or completely new procedures in order to ensure the safety of clinical trial participants, compliance with good clinical practice, and minimizing risks to the clinical trial integrity and validity of data obtained from clinical trials conducted during the pandemic. The paper acquaints with emergency measures issued by the State Institute for Drug Control during the COVID-19 public health emergency, discusses quality management, methods of efficient verification of the safety of subjects and data validity, and last but not least, presents risk areas and their ethical aspects in conducting clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, SOLEN s.r.o. All rights reserved.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) is a collection of interconnected or interacting elements that work together to define and implement Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) policies and objectives. Employers must guarantee that this system is effectively implemented to safeguard employees from hazards in order to attain those goals and eliminating work-related injuries, illnesses, diseases, incidents and deaths by using the guideline given by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as well as the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH) of Malaysia. Auditing is among the vital process in analyzing the performance of OSHMS. The audit process is part of the evaluation element, as described by ILO where the auditor needs to evaluate the OSH performance. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the traditional audit could not be conducted, thus the remote audit is considered to be a viable option to ensure the audit process continues. Therefore, this paper intends to understand how the OSHMS especially in the university context can be remotely audited using Mixed Reality (MR) applications through a review of the literature. The findings indicate appropriate contexts of discussion for the study and also identified MR technology namely the 360-degree panoramic view technology that could be further studiedThe paper's contribution is a better knowledge of the OSHMS remote audit process through the usage of MR applications in a specialized setting. The findings of this study would be beneficial to the stakeholders in the relevant context particularly in the university in their investment decision-making for a future-ready ecosystem by digitising their enterprises. © 2021 IEEE.
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BACKGROUND: Adequate quality systems throughout pharmaceutical supply chains are crucial to protect individuals and communities from substandard and falsified medical products. Thus, pharmaceutical distributors are regularly assessed by qualified experts. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced a suspension of normal activities, remote assessments via videoconferencing may represent a temporary alternative to on-site audits. We exploratorily evaluated the feasibility of remote assessments of pharmaceutical distributors, located in a low- or middle-income country hard-to reach during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted pilot remote assessments of four conveniently selected distributors. The expert was remotely connected via videoconference, and supported by an in-country assessment facilitator (ICAF), who had received ad hoc training and was present at the assessed facility. First, the remote expert assessed the quality assurance (QA) activities and rated their compliance with the standards of the World Health Organization Good Storage & Distribution Practices (GSDP), as per routine practice. Second, s/he assessed the completeness, clarity and accuracy of data collected remotely, first per distributor, and then in aggregated form. RESULTS: Data completeness was assessed by the expert as excellent, while clarity and accuracy were good. Overall data quality (a combination of completeness, clarity and accuracy) was good, with no major differences across QA activities, nor across distributors. Contextual limitations included poor internet connection, language barriers, and distributors' lack of familiarity with QA terminology. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are exploratory and cannot be extrapolated to other contexts, nor to other types of audits. Nonetheless, this pilot experience suggests that a well-planned remote assessment of pharmaceutical distributors, conducted with the support of a well-trained onsite ICAF, can provide data of acceptable quality, allowing to assess GSDP-compliance and to make temporary decisions about licensing or purchasing. Purchasers and policy makers should read the results of remote assessments in light of their intrinsic limitations. At the moment, onsite assessments remain the gold standards, but this could change in the longer term, with improved information technology and in light of the need to avoid unnecessary travels. Furthermore, remote assessments could be considered for routine pre-screening candidates for on-site assessments, and for targeted follow-up of on-site assessment.