The purpose of this research is to determine, whether an auditor, by conducting the statutory audit of the companies’ financial statements, improves the non-quantitative information, reported by companies.

The companies’ financial statements consist of the Balance Sheet, the Profit and Loss Statement, the Notes, all focused on quantitative (financial) information, as well as the Management Report, which includes mainly non-quantitative information.

In accordance with Greek commercial legislation, as determined mainly by laws 4548/2028, 4309/2024, 4336/2015 and circular 62784/2017, the Management Report should include non-quantitative key performance indicators, focused on environmental issues, labor-social issues, corporate governance issues and business risks. If the Management Report does not include the above information, significant penalties could be imposed on the members of Directors’ Board.

In the context of this study we have examined to what extent a sample of 84 companies operating in Greece, in the sector of agricultural supplies, complies with the requirements of Greek legislation about reporting on environmental issues, labor-social issues, corporate governance issues and business risks and if, ultimately, the auditor has succeeded in improving the non-quantitative information.

We have evaluated the compliance of each Company for the period 2019-2022, comparing the information reported by Management Reports with the information required by Greek legislation.

Regardless the auditor involvement, the presentation of non-quantitative information has been improved. The overall average compliance rating of all companies, subject or not subject to audit, shows a continuous improvement, i.e. 56.273% for 2019, 61.180% for 2020, 64.501% for 2021 and 66.302% for 2022.

The auditor involvement has improved significantly the non-quantitative information. The overall average compliance ratings of audited companies are higher than the corresponding ratings of non-audited companies, i.e. 74,586% versus 41,147% for 2019, 76,794% versus 44,614% for 2020, 77,809% versus 49,145% for 2021 and 80,614% versus 48,123% for 2022. There is a very high correlation of the overall average compliance rating with the statutory audit (R2 = 0.9719 and p <0.05).

The overall average compliance ratings of companies, audited by leading audit firms, are higher than the corresponding ones of companies, audited by other, smaller audit firms, i.e. 76,705% versus 67,410% for 2019, 78,769% versus 72,339% for 2020, 79,607% versus 74,213% for 2021 and 84,050% versus 74,550% for 2022.

An overall qualified audit opinion cannot exist with a clear audit opinion for Management Report, because the figures of the balance sheet and the profit – loss statement are used for the ratios of Management Report. We have identified cases of inconsistency between the overall audit opinion and the audit opinion for Management Report, i.e. 55,56% of 2019’s audits, 51,16% of 2020’s audits, 53,33% of 2021’s audits and 46,81% of 2022’s audits.

It cannot exist a zero-compliance rating per topic or a low overall compliance rating with a clear audit opinion for Management Report. We have identified cases of inconsistency between low or zero compliance rating and clear audit opinions for Management Report, i.e. 13,89% of 2019’s audits, 11,63% of 2020’s audits, 13,33% of 2021’s audits and 8,51% of 2022’s audits.

JEL Classification: Q56, M10, M14, M40, M48