The impact of the characteristicsofauditcommitteeson the type ofthe opinionintheauditorreport-An Empirical Study on the Saudi environment(*)
Dr.Magdy Melegy, Abdul Hakim
Lecturer, Department of Account-ing - Faculty of Commerce
Benha University
Assistant Professor, Accounting Dept CCOM - University of Sal-man Bin Abdul aziz Dr.Alaa Mohammad Malo Alain
Assistant Professor –Accounting Dept CBAK –University of Sal-man bin Abdulaziz

Research abstract
This study aimed to analyze the impact of the character-istics of the audit committees to improve the quality of the opinion of the auditor report to try to restore the confidence of users of the financial statements in the auditor's report, espe-cially after the collapses and financial crises, that many inter-national companies had suffered in the recently. The study de-veloped a model to measure this effect that included the char-acteristics of the Audit Committee variable as an independent variable and the quality of the opinionin the auditor report as the dependent variable in addition to some other variables af-fecting this relationship. The study has been applied on a sam-ple of (100) companies from the Saudi joint stock companies which are listed on the stock market of Saudi Arabia during the period from (2008) to (2012) The study found a correlation positive significant relationship between the independence of the members of the audit committee and the availability of financial and accounting expertise in the members of the Committee, and their good reputation and the extent of receipt of a clean audit report by the company, there is also a correla-tion positive but not statistically significant relationship be-tween the number of meetings of the Committee, its size, and its members rewards and the extent of receipt of a clean audit report by the company, On the other hand there is a negative relationship between the ownership of members of the Com-mittee for shares in the company's to the extent of receipt of a clean audit report by the company. Based on these results the study recommends to have due care in the selection of the members of the audit committees from those having a good reputation and possessing financial and accounting expertise to improve their efficiency in the performance of their superviso-ry and regulatory tasks and therefore improving the quality of financial reporting and the quality of opinion of the auditor's report. It also recommends mandatory to prepare a working di-rectory that regulates various aspects of the audit committees which is similar to what is done by many countries as well as the expansion of the mandatory application in the non-listed companies in the Saudi financial market due to its positive role in improving the quality of the report of the auditor opinion.
Keywords:
Characteristics of the Audit Committee, the auditor's report, corporate governance, financial reporting quality.