This paper examines the perception of bankers on contribution of audit committees towards external auditor independence in public listed companies. All Malaysian public listed companies are required to establish an audit committee as a measure to improve on the internal control mechanism that can help improve the corporate governance practices of firms. Postal questionnaires and interview surveys were used to solicit the perception and views of loan officers. The majority of the respondents believe that auditor independence is preserved with the presence of an actively functioning audit committee. This implies favourably on the corporate governance

Evidence of audit failures documented worldwide have led to major criticism of the auditing professions' independence and exposed its implication on shareholders and stakeholders' interests. External auditors are expected not only be independent but more importantly must be seen to be independent when examining and attesting clients' financial statements. Auditors are expected to decide on reporting strategies without any influence from their clients' management.

Over the last decade, the accounting profession has witnessed the commercialisation of audit firms through offering of non-audit services (i.e. business consultancy services) to their audit client. Regulators and stakeholders have placed a great concern on the potential threat of commercialization of audit services on perceived auditor independence. This study reports the effects of the joint provision of audit and non-audit services (NAS) and the type of NAS on perceived auditor independence. The main findings suggest that auditor independence is perceived to be compromised when audit and NAS were jointly offered by audit firms. However, when there exist proper segregation of duties in audit firms that offer both services, the perception changed.

The term privatisation has many shades of meaning. The overall purpose of privatisation is that of transferring the provision of goods and services from the public sector to the private sector and Kay and Thompson (1986) suggest that the term covers denationalisation (the sale of state owned enterprises), deregulation (the introduction of competition) and contracting out (the provision by private sector organisations of public services). Over the past 25 years or so, all of these various forms of privatisation have developed and evolved and are now a pervasive feature of the economies of many countries. Available in physical copy only (Call Number: HF 5630 S464)

Over the last few decades, a sizeable number of studies have examined the relationship between audit pricing model and corporate governance characteristics in developed economies (O'Sullivan and Diacon, 1994; Short et al., 1999; Peel & Clatworthy, 2001; Clatworthy & Peel, 2006; Yatim et al., 2006). The Cadbury Report (1992) viewed the auditor's report as "one of the corner stones of corporate governance". Peel and Clatworthy (2001) highlights that audit report contribute significantly towards "effective governance of modern corporations".