Audit sector overview for 2023: Growth, trends, and performance

In 2023, auditing organizations and independent auditors in Azerbaijan completed 7,232 contracts totaling 133.2 million manats, Azernews reports.

This represents a 20% increase in the number of contracts and a 7.1% rise in total contract value compared to 2022. The average contract value in the audit market was 18,400 manats, up 11.85% from the previous year.

The "Big 4" accounting firms—Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG—were involved in 59.3% of the total contract value and 13.8% of the contracts by number. These figures show a slight decrease of 1.6 percentage points in contract value share and 0.1 percentage points in the number of contracts compared to the previous year.

In terms of contract fulfillment, 6,397 contracts worth 95.7 million manats were completed in 2023, marking increases of 32.2% in the number of contracts and 19.8% in their total value. The average value of fulfilled contracts was 15,000 manats, reflecting a 10.4% rise from 2022.

There were 4,937 mandatory audit subjects in Azerbaijan in 2023, a 4.45% decrease from the previous year. Despite this, the number of audited institutions surged by 30.5% to 2,962, raising their share from 40.4% to 60% of the total.

Notably, 43% of joint-stock companies (SCs) did not pass their audits last year, an increase of 3.9% from 2022. The number of audited SCs rose by 10.9% to 214, with their share increasing from 53.2% to 57%.

For limited liability companies (LLCs), 32% failed their audits in 2023. There were 2,862 LLCs subject to mandatory audits, a decrease of 7.65% from the previous year. However, the number of LLCs that passed the audit increased by 37.05% to 1,942, raising their successful audit rate from 45.7% to 68%.

Municipal audits saw 54% of municipalities failing their audits last year. A total of 1,606 municipalities were subject to mandatory audits in 2023, a 0.1% increase from 2022. The number of audited municipalities grew by 25.05% to 744, with their share increasing from 37.1% to 46.3%, meaning 53.7% of municipalities did not pass their audits.