“Effect of government policy and controller’s connection with relevant parties on information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19”

Accounting information provides the financial state, performance, cash flow, and notes to the enterprise’s financial statements. Information quality plays an essential role for stakeholders in making business decisions. The study examines the impact of government policy and the controller’s connection with relevant parties on the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19. The surveyed subjects include 347 controllers of audit firms in Vietnam. The paper uses quantitative methods, specifically the exploratory factor analysis method, and the ordinary least squares are used to test the model’s hypotheses. Agency and stakeholder theories are used to explain the basis of the study’s theory. The results show that the government policy and the controller’s connection with relevant parties positively affect the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms. The level of correlation between factors is appropriate, between 0.126 and 0.618. Government policy is one of the most influential factors in information quality (0.412). Relevant parties include audit firms, relatives, and the community, and the level of connection between the controller and relatives and the community (0.298) is better than that of audit firms (0.183). The study proposes policies to connect controllers and relevant parties in cooperation and mutual support to ensure strict control activities and improve the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms.


INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 appeared at the end of 2019 and spread around the world.The government of some countries imposed social distancing practices.Many businesses have to convert work from home, and the control activity is no exception.Control activities related to evidence collection, judgment, and data inventory are significantly affected.It changes the nature of the controller's work and approach (Erer, 2020;Kaka, 2021;Amy et al., 2022).This affects working conditions and the effectiveness of control activities.
Under the impact of the pandemic, both audit firms and controlled enterprises are affected.Controllers are always under pressure from the connection between relatives and the community.It affects control operations due to the insecurity and stress of controllers.Controllers' activities are mostly disturbed by changes in processes, procedures, methods, and techniques.The change in control activities has affected the information judgment of controllers.Controllers must work in unusually fluctuating conditions so control activities cope with unusual changes.It leads to certain difficulties in evaluating and judging information (Amiruddin, 2019;Agusiady et al., 2023).The pandemic is one of the major challenges for controllers to ensure the quality of information of audit firms during COVID-19.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
The COVID-19 pandemic affects the surrounding physical environment, such as living, learning, working, and entertainment environments.The social connections and cultural foundations in which groups of people are defined as functioning and interacting with each other have been impacted by the pandemic.Factors influenced by the pandemic include the labor market, working processes, human and health services, and connections between relatives, community, and the government (Casper, 2001).Pandemics depend on many aspects and are partly constituted by human social processes.The pandemic influences many aspects, including family, business, and workplace connections (Herda & Lavelle, 2022).Toscano and Zappala (2020) argue that pandemics can be viewed in terms of material, spiritual, and social relations.The pandemic affects the way the workplace is organized and the state's policies to create order in life.Zheng et al.
(2020) believe that pandemics affect both static and unchanging aspects (human nature and culture) and dynamic, almost constantly changing aspects (material and spiritual life).The more society develops, the greater the impact of the pandemic on each family and individual.
Information quality is a complex issue and does not have a universally accepted definition.It is the ability of the controller to express an opinion on the quality of the financial statements based on sufficient and appropriate evidence obtained by the service team.Information quality can be achieved when the control team ensures that the quality control process is strictly followed by the law and provides useful and timely reports (IAASB, 2014).
According to Vietnamese regulations on quality control of financial statements, information quality is the level of satisfaction of users with control results regarding the objectivity and reliability of the control.At the same time, information quality satisfies the controlled firm's expectations about the controller's comments to improve business performance (Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, 2012).Besides, the information quality is difficult to observe, measure, and check because it depends on the perspectives and approaches of service providers and users of the finance report.Therefore, there are many concepts of information quality.DeAngelo (1981) expresses the view of information quality from the perspective of users of the finance report.DeAngelo (1981) also recognizes that information quality is the likelihood that a given controller detects a misstatement in the client's accounting system and reports such irregularities.Johnsson and Persson (2021) consider that information quality is the degree of conformity with controlling standards from the view of service providers and the state.
The origin of agency theory was formulated by Ross (1973) and later developed by Jensen and Meckling (1976).This theory emphasizes the connection between the principal and the agent through the contract.The agent will perform some tasks on behalf of the principal, including delegating a degree of decision-making authority to the principal.Meanwhile, the principal must provide a better choice for the agent.The performance of the delegated party's tasks will be reviewed by an independent third party performing the role of monitoring and evaluating individuals.The theory also assumes that both parties want to maximize their interests, leading to the problem of conflict of interest (Jensen & Meckling, 1976).Based on the agency theory, the stakeholder theory was developed by Freeman (1984).This theory not only recognizes the connection between the principal and the agent but also identifies the link between the enterprise and other economic sectors, including shareholders, investors, creditors, and state agencies.The theory states that the existence and development of the enterprise need to harmonize interests with stakeholders.Agency and stakeholder theories are derived from economic principles, and they are also the basic theory used to explain control needs (Ishak & Shalehah, 2022) H4: The connection between controllers and controlled firms impacts the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms during COVID-19.

METHODOLOGY
The The questionnaire consists of 26 questions, of which 21 questions represent four independent factors (government policy, the connection between the controller and the audit firm, the connection between the controllers, relatives, and the community, and the connection between the controller and the controlled firm) and five questions represent one dependent factor (information quality).The survey questionnaire is presented in Appendix A. Sevenpoint Likert is considered appropriate for measuring the representative factors of the study.
The study develops a scale from the controller's perspective because it is the object of direct implementation and monitoring of information quality.Besides, the controller's perspective is consistent with the study's survey.The study implements quantitative data through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the ordinary least squares (OLS).
Inheriting from previous studies, the study establishes the regression equation as follows:

RESULTS
To satisfy statistical significance, Cronbach's Alpha should be higher than 0.6, and the Corrected Item-Total Correlation higher than 0.3 (Watkins, 2008).Based on Table 2, all the factors of the model have Cronbach's Alpha coefficient higher than 0.769.The scale of the factors reaches the standard and has good reliability.All observed factors have Corrected Item-Total Correlation ranging from 0.531 to 0.771 (higher than 0.3), so the study concludes that 26 observed factors satisfy the conditions for conducting exploratory factor analysis.Watkins (2008) acknowledges that Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) ensures statistical significance when it is higher than 0.5 and less than 1.The significance of Bartlett's test should be less than 0.05.Table 3 shows that the coefficient of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin is 0.864, which meets the requirements.Therefore, the scales included in the factor analysis are meaningful, and the research model is suitable for the proposed factors.Moreover, the results of Bartlett's test show a significance equal to 0.000 and less than 0.05.It means that the scales have a linear connection and are suitable for exploratory factor analysis..000 The convergence and dispersion values of the scales are based on the rotation matrix.These factor weights are all greater than 0.5 (Watkins, 2008).According to Table 4, these factor weights Linear correlations assess the connection between each independent factor and the dependent factor and between the independent factors.To ensure statistical validity, the significance level of the factors should be less than 0.05 (Watkins, 2008).Table 5 shows that the correlation level between variables ranging from 0.126 to 0.618 is appropriate.There is a positive connection between the pandemic and information quality with the significance of each factor being less than 0.05.
The adjusted R square of Table 6 is 0.716, which means that four independent factors explain 71.6% of the variation in information quality.Moreover, the coefficient of Durbin-Watson is 1.752 and satisfies the condition of being higher than 1 and less than 3.This means that the model does not correlate with the residuals (Hair et al., 2010).The F-test is used to test the fit of the model and whether the dependent factor is linearly correlated with the entire independent factor.The following hypotheses are proposed: The factors included in the model do not affect information quality.Based on Table 7, the analysis of variance results shows that the significance is 0.000 and less than 0.05.As a result, the null hypothesis H0 is rejected.It means that the independent factors in the model fit the data set, or the regression model has general significance for the population (Hair et al., 2010).
For the model to have no multicollinearity, the variance inflation factor (VIF) should be less than 10 (Hair et al., 2010).Table 8 shows the variance inflation factor is less than 2, so it confirms that the model does not have multicollinearity.The regression coefficients of the three independent factors are statistically significant and less than 0.05.The results also elicit that the factors of the pandemic and information quality are positive, such as government policy (POLICY), the connection between the controller and the audit firm (GROUP), and the connection between the controllers, relatives, and the community (WORK).
From the above results, the standardized regression equation is determined as follows: 0.412 0.183 0.289 .

DISCUSSION
The results align with Saleem (2021), Akrimi Government policy is a positive factor affecting information quality, which is recognized by Saleem (2021) and Amaning et al. (2022).This result is appropriate to the COVID-19 context in Vietnam because the government's social distancing policy limits travel, making it difficult for controllers to perform control activities.Accordingly, it is matched by timely support policies from the Vietnamese government and professional associations.The active support of state agencies and professional organizations will contribute to increasing information quality.At the same time, the government's policy needs to flexibly adapt regulations on quality reports to suit the context of COVID-19.
For the connection between the controllers, relatives, and the community, the result is similar to Akrimi (2021), Munidewi et al. (2020), and Agusiady et al. (2023).This factor also positively affects information quality.That result reflects the  Based on the research results, the study proposes some policies to maintain and improve the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19 including state management agencies, relatives, the community, and audit firms.
First, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam needs timely guidance to implement online control procedures and processes to ensure information quality.Due to the prolonged distancing period, the Ministry of Finance should allow audit firms and controlled firms to use electronic signatures on financial statements.In addition, it should allow the postponement of the submission of audited documents to the financial statements to help audit firms have enough time to ensure information quality.The Ministry of Finance cooperates with audit firms to develop electronic control records and tools to adapt to work from home to match the trend of digital transformation.
Second, while working in groups, team members should increase interaction and communication among team members, especially with the leader.Controllers should increase the exchange of information, especially via video call during a certain period of the control period, about issues that arise so that the control team can resolve them on time.Leaders need to clearly define and communicate what is expected of team members and respect and encourage employee suggestions.Due to the pandemic situation, team members need to share and support each other's work.Moreover, the control team needs to be self-disciplined in updating specialized knowledge and researching new regimes and policies.The control team should have additional and alternative procedures in the control process to be able to ensure information quality.
Finally, audit firms should pay attention to improving control of human resources, and the remuneration and benefits of employees should be given due attention.To ensure benefits for employees, the audit firm should apply a flexible salary increase and reward regime for controllers who make great contributions.Audit firms also need to support sharing difficult issues of controllers on time and should regularly encourage the morale and work motivation of controllers.Audit firms need to build a convenient and secure data center to collect information and data from the controlled firm.Audit firms should invest in the development of control software suitable for the control programs of many audit firms in the world.

CONCLUSION
The quality of finance reports is important for information users when evaluating an enterprise's business activities.It is an essential basis for implementing the decisions of stakeholders.The study aims to test the impact of government policy and the controller's connection with relevant parties on the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19.Exploratory factor analysis from the observed variables is extracted into four factors: government policy, connection with the audit firm, relatives, the community, and controlled firm.The results demonstrate factors that positively affect information quality, where government policy has the strongest impact.The study also provides evidence that controllers' connection with the audit firm is lower than that of relatives and the community in the context of COVID-19.Meanwhile, the results do not find a connection between controllers and controlled firms.This result is consistent with the stakeholder theory in harmonizing interests to ensure information quality for relevant users.
The study also provides useful resources for controllers in audit firms about factors affecting information quality.It is a useful document for controllers interested in control activities.The analysis contributes to supporting stakeholders in understanding controllers' difficulties in special circumstances.Above all, coordination between relevant parties is needed to ensure information quality in any situation.
Information quality; POLICY: Government policy; GROUP: The connection between the controller and the audit firm; WORK: The connection between the controllers, relatives, and the community; CONTROL: The connection between the controller and the controlled firm; ( ) 1,2,3,4 ii β = -Coefficient of independent factors; ε -error.

H 1 :
The factors included in the model affect information quality.

,
Munidewi et al. (2020), Reyes et al. (2021), Hazaea et al. (2022), Amaning et al. (2022), and Agusiady et al. (2023).The paper explains the foundation theories with the role of a third-party intermediary, the audit firm, to perform control of financial statements to ensure the quality of infor-mation for stakeholders.The results show that all three factors of the pandemic positively affect the information quality of Vietnamese audit firms in the context of COVID-19, including government policies, the connection between the controller and the audit firm, and the connection between the controllers, relatives, and the community.
The results indicate that audit fees, audit firm personnel, processes, and procedures affected information quality accounting during COVID-19.Agusiady et al. (2023) examined the effect of COVID-19 on information quality.The article interviewed 37 controllers in Bandung Raya, China.The results show that process, cost, work pressure, and controller skepticism positively affect information quality.Alharasis and Mustafa (2023) surveyed 200 Jordanian companies from 2005 to 2020 to examine information quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.The results show that family firms have better control capabilities to ensure information quality.
(Chopra et al., 2020;Agusiady et al., 2023)3)ormation quality.Reyes et al. (2021)used a desk study method to determine the impact of COVID-19 on controllers in Indonesia.In this analysis, outstanding issues need to be focused on, including fees, audit time, laws and regulations, and assessment of ongoing concerns, clients, tenures, and experiences that affect information quality during COVID-19.The study also finds that controllers and remote clients are unable to speak directly to clients, physically check documents and reports, or observe the specific application of controls.Recently, several studies have focused on audit characteristics to evaluate the impact on information quality of control and audit process in audit process in the context of COVID-19.Hazaea et al. (2022) researched the impact of COVID-19 on information quality, assessing audit fees, audit procedures, and controllers' salaries in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.Data were collected from fifty-five online survey responses and eleven interview responses.The results show that information quality significantly affects audit fees, audit procedures, and audit salaries.Amaning et al. (2022) employed quantitative research by sending a survey and receiving 289 responses from employees working at audit firms in Ghana.The aim was to determine the safeguards adopted by controllers to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on information quality.Factors affecting information quality include technology and government policies.Fadillah and Pramudyastuti (2023) examine how independent auditing affects information quality and procedures due to the impact of COVID-19.Yuniarwati and Ardana (2023) conducted a survey of controllers in Indonesia in 2022.The outbreak of COVID-19 in Vietnam caused difficult challenges not only for controlled firms but also for audit firms and controllers.Until now, there has been no thorough study on its potential impact on information quality, considering changes in policies and the living and working environment in Vietnam.Huy (2022) considered the factors affecting audit quality during COVID-19, but this study only considers some factors that impact information quality, such as audit fees, assessment of ability to continue operation, audit evidence, human capital audit, and the salary of the audit staff.dependently,andasense of responsibility for control work (Albitar et al., 2021).Controllers' work from home makes the exchange connections in society and affects the quality of work(Mustajab et al., 2020;Agusiady et al., 2023).Working from home for controllers and control teams increases the workload, so incentives are needed to stay motivated.To deal with temporary work for the control period, audit firms must divide work in the form of response that will affect the information quality(Hazaea et al., 2022).during the control process.The conflict is one of the impacts on information quality(Chopra et al., 2020;Agusiady et al., 2023).It is a challenge to the mental and physical health of the controllers.

Table 1 .
Statistics of survey participants

Table 2 .
Summary reliability of the scales

Table 4 .
Rotated component matrix

Table 6 .
Model summary

Table 9 .
Hypotheses testing results