국제해사기구(IMO)는 회원국 정부에 대해 SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, LL, TONNAGE, COLREG 등 6개 주요 국제협약의 이행수준을 증진시키기 위하여 회원국 감사제도(MAS)를 채택하고 있다. 이 감사제도는 회원국의 요청에 따라 실시하는 자발적인 감사이나 우리나라는 국제신인도 및 해운산업 경쟁력을 제고하기 위하여 수감을 준비하고 있다. 본 연구는 MAS 대상 6개 협약의 이행 현황 분석을 토대로 MAS 수감에 소요되는 비용과 감사 결과의 효과를 계량화하여 동 감사제도 도입의 타당성을 평가하기 위하여 수행되었다. MAS 도입에 따른 비용편익분석 결과 편익/비용 비율이 200 정도로 나타나 투자비용에 비해 편익 효과가 매우 높음을 알 수 있었다.

The paper investigates the factors that affect the demand for a voluntary audit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire survey of 284 SMEs was employed, preceded by in-depth interviews with auditors and SMEs’ managers. The research used logistic regression estimator to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. The results show that the degree of director’s view on voluntary audit, related stakeholder, degree of recommendation, and firm size have a statistically significant positive effect on audit decisions of SMEs while degree of audit fee has a statistically significant negative effect, and degree of subjective norm does not affect. This indicated that SMEs are more likely to have an external audit if they have some typical features: it is becoming larger in terms of size, and the directors consider that the audit has a relative benefit outweighing its cost. The research results suggested that Vietnam Government should make a statutory audit of SMEs’ financial statements rather than make it an option for SMEs. The auditing firms were also recommended to actively take their audit services to SMEs rather than waiting for the SMEs’ managers to contact them for their services.