Effects of volunteer auditor rotations on audit quality

Due to the financial scandals in the early 2000s, the independence of auditor and the reliability of the audit were brought to the agenda and it has been tried to prevent from negative thoughts with the help of some regulations. One of these regulations is mandatory auditor switch. However, the regulatory authority has determined that the auditor can be changed not only mandatory, but also voluntarily. Although the word "voluntary" evoke positive connotations, it is generally characterized by such problems as dismissal the auditor, withdrawal of the auditor, the purchase of the audit opinion, and the effort to cover up the wrong and fake financial reports. In this study, the effect of voluntary auditor rotation on the quality of auditing was examined in the case of manufacturing companies listed on Borsa Istanbul. The financial data of 48 companies that voluntarily changed their auditors in the last 5 years were analysed. Within this framework, discretionary accruals have been estimated primarily through the Kothari, Leona and Wasley Model, and then the effect of firm size, financial leverage, cash flow resulting from operations, growth and loss status on discretionary accruals has been examined. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that these independent variables did not affect discretionary accruals. Keywords: Audit, independent audit, independent auditor, rotation, voluntary rotation