Assessment of the information content of the legal audit report by the credit officers of commercial banks in the Cameroonian context

The audit report, which is the culmination of the statutory audit assignment, has been the subject of several reforms, both in Africa and worldwide. These reforms have provided an opportunity to take a closer look at the role of the audit report in decision-making. The objective of this paper is to reveal the opinion of credit officers on the role of the information content of the statutory audit report in the decision to grant credit in Cameroon. Semi-structured individual interviews with loan officers at six commercial banks yielded three main findings. First, loan officers attach little importance to the audit report issued by the “non-Big Four” firms. They place more importance on the audit report certified by the Big Four firms because they need to preserve their reputation. Secondly, credit officers have a good knowledge of the different types of audit opinions. They are more scrutinizing of the audit report when it comes to a denial of certification of accounts. Thirdly, the loan officers think that despite the June 2017 reform, the current form of the audit report does not provide enough information on the management of the company. They need details on audit procedures, corporate governance, the auditor’s working methodology, and information on the composition of the audit team and the future of the company.