Prior research shows that many of the companies that disclose material weaknesses in internal control (MWs) do not disclose such weaknesses in earlier quarterly 10-Q filings for the same year—i.e., the year-end MW disclosures are “surprise” disclosures. I first show, using data from 2009 to 2019, that such surprise MWs continue to be the majority of MW disclosures as late as 2019. I find that accelerated filer companies with surprise MWs pay lower fees compared to companies with no-surprise MWs; however, this finding does not hold for non-accelerated filers. I also find that there are no significant differences in the audit report lag of surprise and no-surprise MW disclosers. Thus, the lower audit fee paid by surprise MW disclosure companies may offer a possible explanation for the widespread prevalence of surprise MW disclosures. The results also highlight the importance of the external auditor in public disclosures of MWs. The findings have public policy relevance given the ongoing efforts to expand the set of companies that would be exempt from the auditor attestation of internal controls.

先前的研究表明，许多披露内部控制 (MW) 重大缺陷的公司并未在同年早些时候的季度 10-Q 申报中披露此类缺陷——即，年终披露的 MW 是“意外”披露。我首先使用 2009 年至 2019 年的数据表明，直到 2019 年，此类意外 MW 仍然是 MW 披露的大部分。我发现，与没有意外 MW 的公司相比，拥有意外 MW 的加速申报公司支付的费用更低；然而，这一发现不适用于非加速申报者。我还发现，意外和不意外 MW 披露者的审计报告滞后没有显着差异。因此，意外 MW 披露公司支付的较低审计费用可能为意外 MW 披露的普遍流行提供了一个可能的解释。结果还强调了外部审计师在 MW 公开披露中的重要性。鉴于不断努力扩大免于内部控制审计师证明的公司范围，这些发现具有公共政策相关性。