The role of Remote Auditing in Obtaining Evidence under the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of remote auditing in securing adequate and appropriate audit evidence in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to give an insight on concept, requirements, merits and limitations of remote auditing, as well as the role of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in facilitating remote auditing processes and enriching the quality of audit evidence. The researchers used the descriptive approach for the theoretical part of the research and the descriptive analytical approach for the empirical part of the research to achieve the objectives of the study. A questionnaire was sent to the auditors from the Federal Board of Supreme Audit, private audit offices and academics in Iraq. The collected data were analyzed by using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) for testing the proposed research hypotheses. The results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between remote auditing and audit evidence acquisition being sufficient and appropriate during COVID-19. The findings also showed that use of artificial intelligence technologies increases efficiency of remote auditing, strengthens audit evidence quality and reliability, and decreases audit procedure time and effort. The study suggests an increase in the use of remote auditing techniques, the digitization of technological resources and the development of the competencies of auditors in digital tools to facilitate high-quality auditing in the digital context.