An Empirical Analysis of Audit Delays and Timeliness of Corporate Financial Reporting in Kuwait

This paper analyzes the factors that affect delays in the signing of audit reports. Audit delays are measured by the number of days that elapse from the end of the financial year until the date when the auditor report is signed. Previous studies of audit delays in various countries are reviewed, along with some of the results of the variables that were tested. This study focuses on 149 and 177 companies listed on the Kuwait stock market in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Six explanatory variables are tested to investigate delays in issuing audit reports. The results show that company size is the only variable that negatively correlates with audit delay in the period tested. The variables industry classification, leverage, percentage change in earning per share, type of auditors, and liquidity show no significant correlation with audit delays for listed companies in Kuwait. Liquidity, leverage and type of auditors were negatively correlated with audit delay in 2006 for the first two variables and in 2007 for the type of auditors. Future research would consider other variables such as other interpretation of company size, ownership concentration, quality of internal control, direction of income or loss, and the mix of audit work