Against the backdrop of concerns for diminishing the vulnerabilities of the economies of the Member States, the EU has adopted measures to strengthen budgetary discipline and control of the public deficit. In this context, the responsibility of government institutions has increased, not only in ensuring the sustainability of public finances but also in direct or indirect cooperation for good economic governance. From this perspective, this study aims to assess the impact of macroeconomic variables and those associated with supreme audit institutions on the sustainability of public finances measured by the size and dynamics of government deficit and gross public debt. Additionally, the impact of the same variables on governmental effectiveness and control of corruption has also been assessed. The data collected from secondary sources and panel data models were used to conduct an empirical study of the EU Member States which covered the 2002–2019 period and the sub-periods, divided as follows: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. The results of the study show that supreme audit institutions, through their organizational structure, the nature of their activities, and professionalism, may contribute to the reduction of public deficit and gross public debt and, implicitly, to higher efficiency and control of corruption. The results of analyses for the sub-periods show that ISAs played a more important role in reducing government deficit during crisis and post-crisis periods. By confirming or rejecting the results of the few studies that have been conducted so far, this study provides additional evidence that fills the gaps in the literature.

This paper investigates, in an associative study, the value relevance of the comprehensive income in relation to that of net income, as a consequence of the application of IFRS in Romania, in companies whose securities are admitted for transactions on a regulated market, started with the fiscal year 2012. The paper also analyses in an empirical manner the influence of the Big 4 companies in the direction of improving the relevance of the reporting of the net income and of the comprehensive income for the investors on the financial market, the quality of audit being acknowledged, according to specialised literature, as a means for rendering the accounting figures more credible. The informational usefulness of the net income (pre-IFRS, 2011, and post-IFRS, 2012) and of the comprehensive income (post-IFRS, 2012) is examined on a sample of 65 companies quoted in the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The results of the empirical study confirm that the two categories of accounting results are significantly associated with the share price, reflecting an increased value relevance and usefulness for the investors on the Romanian financial market, after the adoption of the international accounting norms

The professional ethics requirements impose auditors to fulfill the accepted engagement with objectivity, independence and professionalism. Seldom, auditors provided consulting services for the audited firms in order to gain an additional income. But a number of cases proved the existence of a complicity in committing or abetting acts of financial fraud. The auditors’ complicity was supported by the interest in non-audit fees, received by continuing legal relationships. The present study aims to analyze the influence of non-audit fees on the transparency of Client Company's financial reporting, in compliance with professional ethics demands. The results support the idea the, for companies listed at the New York Stock Exchange, the non-audit fees can affect the auditors independence, with a negative impact on the mission quality and implicitly on the transparency of Client Company's financial reportin