Audit Expectation Gap in Palestine - Empirical Study

This research aims at examining the existence of an audit expectation gap in Palestine and its causes from the point of view of auditors and financial managers of the listed corporations in the Palestinian Stock Market and to submit the necessary recommendations to bridge this gap. To achieve that, a questionnaire was distributed to a sample of auditors and financial managers. The questionnaire contained statements regarding three aspects of audit: auditor responsibilities, means of unqualified audit report, and activities that impair auditor independence. Statistical means, standard deviations, and independent t-test were used to analyze data. Results showed that there are simple differences between the means of the two groups’ responses regarding auditor responsibilities and activities impairing auditor independence, while there are significant differences between the mean responses of the two groups’ responses regarding the means of unqualified audit report. Finally the researcher recommends that the Palestinian Association of Certified Accountants have to educate the society about the nature and purposes of the audit profession and to explain the audit’s role and scope, the auditor’s responsibilities and their role in following up and implementing rules and professional standards.