An independent audit oversight system in a non-developed market: the case of Egypt

This study aims to provide a better understanding of oversight on the audit profession in Egypt, including its motivations, objectives and its working approach. Further, it reaches a better understanding of the Egyptian Big 4 partners' perceptions of the new audit oversight board (AOB). Previous studies have frequently examined the audit oversight system in developed countries (the USA and UK in particular), but little is known on how the system works on developing countries. We believe that facing different problems and challenges demands that audit regulators in developing countries follow different approaches in order to improve the quality of their audit markets. Lack of skilled auditors, lack of transparency and public accountability, and a high level of corruption are the main problems facing the audit profession in Egypt (Awadallah, 2006; Wahdan et al., 2005a). Our findings suggest that establishing an AOB in Egypt has been motivated by the need to attract foreign investments and follow the global trend of auditing in developed countries. A number of legal changes are needed in order to improve the AOB's efficiency.