Title: Audit committee competencies and corporate disclosure transparency of Malaysian government linked companies

Authors: Muhammad Iqmal A. Manap; Nur Shuhada Ya'acob; Bakhtiar Alrazi

Addresses: Department of Accounting and Finance, College of Business Management and Accounting, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus, Pahang, Malaysia ' Department of Accounting and Finance, College of Business Management and Accounting, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus, Pahang, Malaysia ' Department of Accounting and Finance, College of Business Management and Accounting, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus, Pahang, Malaysia

Abstract: Transparency through corporate disclosure is crucial especially in a society that demands for real-time information. Underlying this is a belief that competency enhances the effectiveness of audit committees and, by extension, the corporate disclosure transparency. This study primarily analyses the relationship between audit committee competencies and corporate disclosure transparency of Malaysian GLCs. The competencies examined in details are experience, advanced academic qualification, training and multiple directorships. Regarding experience, it is divided into accounting financial experts, finance experts and supervisory experts. To achieve this objective, a quantitative-positivist approach has been adopted in this study wherein the aggregate disclosure index was designed and annual reports of ten GLCs for the period of 2009-2017 were used to collect data. Using multiple regression analysis on the data collected, the results show that accounting financial experts, finance experts and advanced academic qualification have a significant positive influence on the corporate disclosure transparency. However, there is no evidence that supervisory experts, training and multiple directorships affect corporate disclosure transparency.

Keywords: competencies; corporate disclosure transparency; GLCs; audit committee; disclosure index.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSPM.2022.126238

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management, 2022 Vol.10 No.2/3, pp.345 - 362

Received: 04 May 2019
Accepted: 03 Mar 2020

Published online: 18 Oct 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article