Corporate Governance Structure and Its Relationship with Audit Fee-Evidence from Malaysian Public Listed Companies

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the firms’ internal corporate governance mechanisms with audit fee in Malaysia. Different to other study conducted previously, this study also looks at the objectives of the study from the perspective of the newly introduced Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG 2007) which was introduced in October 2007. The data consisted of a sample of 300 companies in Bursa Malaysia from pre-MCCG 2007 (year 2006) to post-MCCG 2007 (year 2008) (900 firm-years). Ordinary least square (OLS) regression method was utilized to analyze audit fee hypotheses developed. It was found that in general MCCG 2007 influenced the determinants of audit fee through the restructuring of corporate governance monitoring tools such as audit committee and internal audit function. Future research is recommended to study the impact of MCCG 2007 in a more specific manner such as to incorporate qualitative data and use longer time frame.