A study on the independent auditing of public interest entities in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the state of independent auditing of public interest entities (PIEs) in Turkey, following the recent changes in the regulatory environment. In order to eliminate the effects of different pricing policies and economic factors, the number of audited PIEs is used in the analysis instead of audit revenues. As of 2016, there are 1453 PIEs audited by 72 independent audit firms. Out of these audits, 61%, 26% and 13% are carried out by the‘Big4’, the member firms of international audit networks (IAN) and the local auditors, respectively. From 2013 to 2016, the 4-year averages of the number of audited PIEs are 164 for the Big4, 11 for IAN member firms and 5 for local independent auditors. This study is the first to present this huge gap in the Turkish auditing sector in terms of the independent audits of PIEs.