Measuring the level of professional skepticism among the external and internal auditors in the Saudi environment, a comparative study

The main objective of the current research was to measure the level of professional skepticism among the external and internal auditors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This goal was achieved by reviewing previous studies that dealt with different models for measuring the level of professional skepticism, and then a model (Hurtt 2010) was chosen to apply it to the Saudi environment.
Through the application of the chosen measure of professional skepticism, it was found that there is a high level of professional skepticism among external auditors in the Kingdom. The level of professional skepticism among the internal auditors in the Kingdom was also measured, and through the application of the chosen measure of professional skepticism, there was a high level of professional skepticism among the internal auditors in the Kingdom, and this result differed with what the researcher assumed.
It was also found that there are significant differences in the practice of professional skepticism between internal auditors and external auditors in the Kingdom.
The results of the research also indicate that the level of professional skepticism among the internal auditors is higher than the level of professional skepticism among the external auditors in the Kingdom, and this result contradicts the expectations of the researcher. However, this result could be explained by the newly increased interest in the profession of internal auditing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the establishment of the Saudi Association of Internal Auditors to regulate the profession of internal auditing and the acquisition of many internal auditors in recent years by a certificate of a certified internal auditor CIA, and the sample of internal auditors in the research included a large proportion of The internal auditors in government agencies who practice the profession under strict regulations and control from the highest supervisory authorities in the Kingdom, which makes them exercise the highest level of professional skepticism to avoid accountability from the higher supervisory authorities. The researcher also reached a sub-result of the research represented in the role of the experience element in determining the level of the practitioner of professional skepticism, whether with the internal auditor or the external auditor.