핵심감사제의 도입효과에 관한 연구

Abstract

2015년 대우조선해양의 ‘회계절벽’ 현상으로 인해 수주산업의 분식회계 의혹이 이슈화되었고, 이후 대우건설, 현대엔지니어링 등의 수주산업에서도 ‘회계절벽’ 현상이 연이어 발생함으로써 수주산업의 회계처리 및 회계투명성 문제가 주목받았다. 수주산업은 일반적으로 공사진행률에 따라 수익을 인식하며, 공사진행률을 산정하는데 있어 추정과 경영자의 판단이 상당부분 필요하다. 만약 추정이 적정하지 않다면 적절한 공사진행률을 측정하지 못하게 되고, 잘못된 수익을 인식하게 될 것이다. 그러므로 금융감독원은 이러한 추정의 불확실성으로 인한 회계처리를 개선하고자 수주산업에 핵심감사제를 도입하였다. 핵심감사제는 도입을 위해 준비하고 있다가 수주산업의 분식회계 의혹이 이슈화되면서 다소 급하게 도입된 점이 있다. 이로 인해 핵심감사제의 효익보다 비용이 더 크다는 점, 기업의 가장 핵심적인 회계정보와 위험요인들이 투자자에게 공개되어 부작용이 나타날 수 있다는 점 등의 부정적인 의견이 제기되고 있다. 또한 우리나라의 감사환경과 유사한 미국, 독일 등이 아직 도입하지 않고 있어 국내환경에서 핵심감사제의 긍정적인 효과가 나타날 것인지에 대한 실증적 증거가 부족하다. 이에 따라 본 연구는 핵심감사제의 유용성을 실증적으로 분석하고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 핵심감사제의 도입이 감사시간, 이익의 질 및 정보비대칭에 미치는 영향을 분석한다. 연구결과에 따르면 핵심감사제의 도입 이후 감사시간은 증가한 것으로 나타났다. 또한 핵심감사제를 도입한 이후 재량적 발생액의 절댓값이 감소하며, 회계처리의 보수성이 증가한 것으로 확인되어 핵심감사제의 도입 이후 이익의 질은 향상되었다고 할 수 있다. 그리고 핵심감사제의 도입 이후 정보비대칭은 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 핵심감사제와 관련된 선행연구들은 주로 설문연구로 수행되었으나, 본 연구는 핵심감사제의 도입효과에 대한 실증적인 증거를 제시한다는 점에서 선행연구와 차별된다. 또한 핵심감사제에 대한 부정적인 의견이 제기되고 있는 상황에서 핵심감사제의 유용성을 분석한다는 것은 실무적･학문적으로 의의가 있을 것이다. 마지막으로 본 연구의 결과는 핵심감사제의 도입으로 인해 긍정적인 효과가 발생한다는 실증적 증거를 통해 부정적인 의견과 우려의 목소리를 불식시키며, 핵심감사제의 시행 및 정착을 위한 제도개선에 도움을 줄 것으로 판단된다. Due to the 'accounting cliff' phenomenon of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company Limited in 2015, the suspicion of window-dressing accounting of the order-made production industry has become an issue, and as the 'accounting cliff' phenomenon has repeatedly occurred in other companies in the order-made production industry such as Daewoo Engineering & Construction Company Limited and Hyundai Engineering Company Limited, the issue of order-made production industry's accounting treatment and accounting transparency received attention. The order-made production industry generally recognizes revenues in line with the percentage of completion, and the calculation of the percentage of completion requires quite some estimation and manager's judgment. Perfect estimation is impossible. That is, if the estimation is not appropriate, the percentage of completion cannot be measured appropriately and wrong revenues will be recognized. Therefore, the Financial Supervisory Service has introduced the key audit matters into the order-made production industry to improve poor accounting due to such uncertainty in estimation. The key audit matters were introduced somewhat in a hurry when being prepared for introduction as the suspicion of window-dressing accounting of the order-made production industry became an issue. Therefore, negative opinions against the key audit matters were raised arguing that since the key audit matters were introduced into the order-made production industry in a hurry, the relevant costs are bigger than the effects. In addition, there are also voices of concern arguing that following the introduction of the key audit matters, the most core accounting information and risk factors of firms may be disclosed to investors so that side effects may appear. In addition, given that key audit matters are implemented only in a few countries such as the UK and France and have not been introduced into the US and Germany where audit environments are similar to those in South Korea, empirical evidence on whether the positive effects of the key audit matters would appear in the domestic environments is insufficient. Therefore, it is considered necessary to empirically analyze the usefulness of the key audit matters. To this end, this study analyzes the effect of the key audit matters on audit time, the quality of earnings, and information asymmetry. The results of empirical analysis of this study are summarized as follows. First, audit time was shown to have increased after the introduction of key audit matters. Second, the quality of earnings has improved after the introduction of key audit matters. Specifically, it was identified that after the introduction of key audit matters, the absolute value of discretionary accruals decreased and that the conservatism of accounting treatments increased. Third, information asymmetry was shown to have decreased after the introduction of key audit matters. That is, the volatility of daily stock returns and the volatility of unexpected returns are shown to be lower after the introduction of key audit matters. This study is differentiated from previous studies in that it provides empirical evidence for the effect of introduction of the key audit matters. Previous studies related to the key audit matters have been conducted mainly as survey studies and empirical studies cannot be easily found. Also, negative opinions have been raised arguing that following the introduction of the key audit matters. In this situation, analyzing the usefulness of key audit matters should be practically and academically meaningful. In addition, this study will contribute to the dissipation of negative opinions and voices of concern through empirical evidence that positive effects are generated by the introduction of the key audit matters. Finally, this study is judged to help improve the system for the implementation and settlement of key audit matters in that it provides empirical evidence for the positive effect of key audit matters. The Financial Services Commission has modified the key audit matters implemented in other countries where the institutional and legal environments are different from South Korea before introducing the key audit matters into South Korea. Although the key audit matters were modified to fit domestic circumstances, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether the positive effects of key audit matters would appear in South Korea too. Therefore, this study has implications in that it presents empirical evidence for the introduction of the key audit matters.