The relationship between audit engagement workload and audit quality: the case of KPMG Harare.

Abstract

The audit failures and fraud scandals in the corporate world have raised alarm and the growing awareness in audit firms for delivery of quality audits. This research study was on the relationship of audit engagement workload and audit quality at KPMG Harare. KPMG is a Big Four Audit Firm that provides audit, advisory and tax services. In light with its external audit client’s fiscal year ends, they tend to get clustered and the researcher observed that the audits performed during that period are likely to be of low quality. The objective of the study was to explore the factors that affect audit quality and find remedies to manage the audit quality factors. Literature was reviewed on the definition of audit quality, direct and indirect factors. A descriptive research design was adopted and the target population was the KPMG staff which was selected by stratified random sampling and convenience sampling. A cross sectional research design was used through questionnaires and interviews to gather primary data and the results were analyzed and presented in tables, pie charts and graphs. The measure of central tendency that was incorporated by the researcher was the mode to do an overall analysis of the data collected. The researcher found out that audits performed at year end are normally of low quality and recommended that management implement an employee retention strategy so as to maintain an adequate firm capacity, provide sufficient resources for the audit team and encourage them to do goal setting at the early stages of an audit.