LE SCELTE OPERATE DALLE SOCIETÀNON QUOTATE ITALIANE IN TEMA DICONTROLLO CONTABILE

Abstract

After the reform of the Italian Commercial Law in 2003, in Italy statutory audits on accounting documents can be carried out in different ways. This reform came into effect on the 1st of January 2004 and for private companies it offered the possibility of appointing a full auditor (individual or audit firm) instead of the Collegio Sindacale for auditing activity. Individual companies could choose whether or not to engage an individual auditor or an audit firm instead of the Collegio Sindacale. The aim of this paper is to report the choices made by 364 Italian private companies. Results concerning not only the characteristics of the statutory auditors, but also the satisfaction level of auditees are presented. Findings show that 48% of the sample has an audit firm, 29% a Collegio Sindacale, the rest (22%) an individual auditor. Therefore, there is a clear relation between the dimension of the auditee and the kind of auditor chosen: the biggest companies select an audit firm. Moreover, the degree of satisfaction about the choice made for statutory audit activity depends on personal characteristics of the respondent (e.g. gender or organizational role)