Could Auditor’s Personal Characteristics Reduce Audit Quality? A Survey of Government Auditors in Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to test the effect of State Audit Agency (SAA) auditor’s personal character on the reduced audit quality behavior (RAQB), using two moderator variables namely quality control as a variable to strengthen and budget pressure to weaken. The survey method using letters to collect data from SAA auditor in Eastern Indonesia, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Maluku. The moderation regression analysis (MRA) model is used to answer the hypotheses. The research findings indicate that good auditor’s personal character could dramatically lower the chances of the reduced audit quality behavior. Furthermore, the interaction of two variables that strengthen and weaken, do not significantly strengthen quality control variable on the relationship between personal character and RAQB. However, budget pressure can weaken the effect of the personal characters in lowering the reduced audit quality behavior. The implication of this study is, however, the condition of the personal character of auditor, if in the state of time budget pressure, then the chances to the reduced audit quality may still occur.

Keywords: Audit Quality Control, Personal Character, RAQB, Time Budget Pressure