近年來,公司發生財務報表舞弊、掏空資產及破產的情形日益增多,探究其原因發現,大多數的公司未實施有效的內部控制。為了進一步落實公司的內部控制制度並維持其有效性,臺灣證券交易所及中華民國證券櫃檯買賣中心於86年要求上市(櫃)公司應自行評估其內部控制及出具內部控制報告書,並委託會計師進行審查,要求「內控聲明書」須於每年申報且刊登於年報及公開說明書中。因此,會計師在內控制度有效性的評估上扮演了重要角色,而信用評等機構在評估公司內控制度有效性上所扮演的角色與會計師類似,故本研究欲探討信用評等機構給予公司信用評等之良窳,是否會影響公司發生內部控制缺失之可能性?並進一步探討信用風險評等等級對不同型態(會計層級v.s.公司層級)內部控制缺失之影響? 本文的實證結果顯示,信用風險評等與內部控制缺失之揭露呈現顯著正相關,意指若信用評等機構給予公司較佳的信用評等時,公司對於其內部控制的控管也會比較嚴格,進而降低公司發生內部控制缺失的機率。此外,本研究進一步發現,不論內部控制缺失的分類為何,若信用評等機構給予公司較佳的信用評等時,則公司內部控制產生嚴重缺失的機率會愈低。
Financial statement frauds, embezzlements of assets and bankruptcy cases have increasingly grown in recent years. The reason is that most of these companies do not implement effective internal controls. In order to enforce internal control system on companies further and keep it working effectively, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) and Taiwan Gre Tai Securities Market (GTSM) required in 1997 that those listed and OTC companies should perform self-assessment on their internal control and prepare internal control report for CPA-auditing. Internal control report should be submitted yearly and published in the annual report and the prospectus. Consequently, CPA plays an important role in assessing the effectiveness of internal control. Just like CPA, credit rating agencies play a similar role in the effectiveness assessment. This study therefore aims to investigate whether the credit risk grade will affect the occurrence of internal control weakness or not. This study also explores account-level weakness and firm-level weakness to see the influence of credit risk grade on the different types of internal control weakness. As the empirical results show, credit risk rating is significantly positive correlated with the disclosure of internal control weakness. The outcome indicates that when credit rating agencies rate a good grade on a company, the company also tends to supervise its internal control more seriously, thereby reducing the probability of internal control weakness. In addition, the study also finds that no matter how the internal control weakness is classified, the probability of serious weakness occurred in the internal control can be much reduced if agencies rate a good grade on the company.