Despite the high contribution of the banking sector to the GDP in Sri Lanka and the importance of the role of audit committees in financial reporting quality maintenance, there is a dearth of research that emphasize on the impact of audit committee effectiveness and audit quality on financial reporting quality in the Sri Lankan context. To fill this lacuna, the study aims to identify the impact of audit committee effectiveness and audit quality on financial reporting quality in the banking sector in Sri Lanka during 2014 – 2018. The objectives were to identify whether there is any impact from these two factors and the kind of impact they have. Secondary data available on the Colombo Stock Exchange website of 30 Licensed Commercial Banks and Licensed Specialized banks were analyzed. The findings indicate that audit committee effectiveness (measured through audit committee size, audit committee meetings frequency and audit committee financial and accounting expertise) has an insignificant relationship on financial reporting quality. Under audit quality (measured through audit fees and audit firm size), audit fees do not show any significant relationship whereas audit firm size has a negative significant relationship on financial reporting quality. For the used control variables of this study, the leverage shows an insignificant relationship whereas the firm size has a positive significant relationship on financial reporting quality in the banking sector in Sri Lanka. This study contributes to practice by providing necessary and vital information to the regulatory institutions of the banking sector in Sri Lanka to make decisions to enhance the financial reporting quality and to enhance the disclosure requirements in the annual reports. It contributes to the extant literature by adding new knowledge through the examination and analysis of audit committee effectiveness and audit quality on financial reporting quality in the banking sector in Sri Lanka.

First, this paper aims to provide empirical evidence of relationship between the internal control and financial performance of the selected manufacturing companies. Second, it seeks to what extent the significance of each internal control component affects to the financial performance. The purpose of this paper is enabling to identify the impact of internal control on financial performance. Data were collected through an online and physical questionnaire and published annual reports of 34 manufacturing companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange in 2019 and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that, control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring of controls are not highly impacted on financial performance individually. However, internal control system consisting with all these components has a greater impact on financial performance. The research is limited only to the manufacturing sector. Future research is needed to examine the relationship between internal control system and financial performance for other sectors as well. The paper demonstrates the need for managers to be aware of the drivers of the effectiveness of the internal control system and the relationships essential to drive financial performance. While all components of an internal control system are vital, this study shows that a good fit between them can lead to improved financial performance. This is the first empirical study that has used 34 public limited companies in manufacturing sector in Sri Lankan context by employing the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) framework.

Purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate governance (CG) attributes on intellectual capital (IC) efficiency of listed Sri Lankan manufacturing sector companies from 2017-2019. This study uses data extracted from audited financial statements of 31 companies for three years (i.e. 2017-2019). The study develops hypotheses on CG attributes; board size, board composition, CEO duality, audit committee size, audit committee independence, audit committee meetings and IC efficiency. Findings of the study reveal that board size, board composition, audit committee size, and audit committee independence are significantly associated with IC efficiency and explained the relationship in the expected direction. In contrast, CEO duality found to have a significant positive association with IC efficiency. The findings of the study provide contextual specific insights on how CG attributes influence IC efficiency and practical insights on what CG attributes should consider in developing IC in manufacturing organizations. This study would stand as the first study in the Sri Lankan context to investigate the impact of CG attributes on IC efficiency.

This study investigates the effects of the audit committee (AC) attributes such as AC size, AC independence, AC finance expertise and AC meeting frequency on firm performance of listed Sri Lankan companies during 2014 – 2018. Secondary data available on the Colombo Stock Exchange website and audited financial statements of a sample of 196 companies were analyzed using random effects model. Findings of the study revealed a significantly positive effect from three attributes of the AC (i.e., AC size, AC independence, and AC meeting frequency) on firm performance, while there is no statistically significant relationship between the AC independence and firm performance of the selected companies for the study. This study adds empirical findings on the effect of AC attributes on firm performance in developing nations context. Further, it becomes one of the very few studies on the same effects on firm performance of Sri Lankan firms. Moreover, this is the first study which has attempted to analyze the effects of AC attributes on firm performance by incorporating data of companies in the post period of introducing the new Code of Best Practices on Corporate Governance - 2017 in Sri Lanka.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between selected corporate governance mechanisms and the degree of earnings management of Sri Lankan listed companies. The study was carried out by using quantitative methodology and using secondary data primarily obtained through published annual reports of 175 non-financial companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange during 2017 to 2019. The study examined the relationship between eight selected corporate governance characteristics and level of earnings management which measured through discretionary accruals. Empirical results of the study reveal a noteworthy positive relation between frequency of audit committee meetings and earnings management. This finding is contrary to the results of most previous studies. The remaining corporate governance characteristics are not having a significant impact on the level of earnings management. This study adds some new evidence on the relationship between selected corporate governance mechanisms and the degree of earnings management of Sri Lankan listed companies as it used data of post implementation period of new Code of Best Practice of Corporate Governance 2017. Findings of the present study differ from available limited studies on the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management in Sri Lankan context as previous studies reported inconclusive relationships whereas the present study established at least one conclusive relationship between frequency of audit committee meetings and earnings management.