Ahmed Fouad Elbayoumi

With the movement of many international accounting firms into Egypt, and the growth of local audit firms, it is particularly interesting, and relevant for governmental legislators, to study how the providers of the audit service perceive the quality of what they do. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to report the perceptions of professional auditors in Egypt concerning how they perceive the quality of the service they provide. The paper also analyzes differences between perceptions of the Big 4 audit firms and other local audit firms. Based on 28 semi-structured interviews, it was revealed that the interviewees generally believed that the audit quality is preserved high in the presence of four factors: (1) high ethical standards to guide and regulate the profession; (2) a well planned and conducted audit; (3) a more knowledgeable audit team; and (4) having a good relationship with the client management.