Perception of accounting information users, accountants and the general public on the independence of public accountants in Indonesia

Abstract

The main objectives of this research are: (1) To know whether accounting information users, accountants, and the general public perceive public accountants as independent and (2) Whether they have the same level of perception about it. The research hypothesizes: (1) They perceive that public accountants are not independent, (2) They have some different perceptions on the independence of public accountants. The population of the research consists of (1) accounting information users including investors and creditors, (2) accountants including public accountants, educational accountants, management accountants, and governmental accountants, and (3) the general public including non investor entrepreneurs, non accounting lecturers, and the students of accountancy. A sample of 50 were drawn from each population. The respondents were asked several statement pertaining to the independency of public accountants. Five close response alternatives were provided ranging from: "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" with scores of "1" to "5". The collected data were tested in terms of their validity and reliability before they were analyzed. Only valid and reliable data were used in the hypothesis testing. A test of means were used for the first hypothesis and an Ftest for the second hypothesis. The results show that the accounting information users, accountants, and the general public significantly perceive public accountants as not independent. Furthermore, they have different levels of perception on the independence of public accountants. There is a significant perception difference between accountants and the general public. There is no significant perception difference bet-ween accounting information users and the general public, and between accountants and accounting information users.