Auditors are professional who have technical competence in accounting and
independence in performing audit works and reporting their opinions to the public.
They are expected to reduce agency cost between shareholders (principle) and
management (agent). When auditors receive audit fees from their audit clients as their
compensation, a question may arise whether they compromise their independence
and work for management instead of shareholders. Besides, audit fee comes from the
negotiation between auditors and their audit clients and there is no specific rule from
the regulatory body for quoting the audit fee. Thus, the concern that audit fee or
economic dependence with clients will impair auditor’s independence becomes an
issue. Auditors who receive high audit fee may want to maintain such clients in their
portfolio and are likely to please them. They may allow client’s management to
manipulate firms’ earnings, override internal controls, and dominate audit process and