In a related study, Davidson, Goodwin-Stewart and Kent (2005) investigated the relationship
between internal governance structure comprising of board of directors, audit committee, internal audit
function and the selection of external auditors, and earnings management in Australia. They used
broad cross-sectional regression to test the association between independent variables and dependent
variable. The sample comprised of 434 firms which were listed on the Australian stock exchange
during 2000. The outcome disclosed no significant relation between the internal audit function and the
choice of external auditors. In the same context, Ljubisavljević and Jovanovi (2011) studied the
relationship between the roles of internal audit in Serbian firms. The sample comprised of 200 small
and medium firms during 2011. This study used questionnaire survey and found that the effectiveness
of the internal audit entity is weak.