THE IMPACT OF AUDIT FEES ON THE QUALITY OF AUDIT SERVICES OF PUBLIC INTEREST ENTITIES IN VIETNAM

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This study was conducted to assess the impact of audit fees on the quality of auditing services for public interest entities in Vietnam. Data was collected from 25 auditing firms accepted to audit public interest entities in Vietnam, with sufficient survey data for the period 2016-2023. The quantitative results showed that there are 4 main factors that affect the quality of audit services in descending order: reputation/prestige of the auditing firm, qualification of auditors, audit service fees, and size of the auditing firm. Based on these results, the authors propose some recommendations to improve the quality of audit services for public interest entities in Vietnam.This study shows the strong impact of the reputation of the auditing firm on the quality of auditing services. This shows that the auditing industry is a unique industry where trust and professional ethics are put first. Therefore, maintaining the trust of customers and maintaining professional ethics and integrity is a vital factor for the auditing firm. The qualifications of the staff performing the audit are the second factor that greatly affects the quality of the audit. The auditing firm needs to have a practical policy to create conditions for auditors to be trained and improve their professional qualifications, contributing to improving the quality of audit services. Audit fees are the third factor affecting the quality of audits. To avoid unfair competition between auditing firms by reducing audit fees and eroding the quality of audit services, effective intervention from the supervisory agency is needed. At the same time, the auditing firm itself needs to proactively improve its reputation and prestige through continuously updating knowledge for auditors, not competing through reducing fees, thereby improving the quality of audit services.