Creative Accounting Versus Auditors’ Ethics: The Case Of Saudi Arabia

The primary subject matter of this research is to examine the effect of audit ethics on auditors’ ability to detect suspicious practices of creative accounting in the context of a developing country, Saudi Arabia. The specific objective is to investigates the effect of auditor's independence, credibility, integrity, and professionalism on auditors' ability to detect the suspicious practices of creative accounting. Descriptive Statistics are used to present quantitative descriptions in a manageable form. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics using SPSS and ordinary least square (OLS) regression. The result revealed that the auditors' ability to detect the practices of creative accounting is affected by the different elements of the audit ethics. In specific, the study finds that auditors' independence, credibility, integrity, and professionalism positively affect the auditor’s ability to detect practices of creative accounting. All elements of audit ethics affect, in different strengths, auditors' ability to detect practices of creative accounting in Saudi Arabia. This study concludes that auditors' ability to detect the practices of creative accounting is affected by the entire group of audit ethics in the context of Saudi Arabia.