As media reports and court trials over the past several years have revealed, audit committees of several companies have been soporific, pliable, negligent or just plain derelict. This may have various reasons. For example, As one of the reasons for this could pointed to a three members of an audit committee in Canada were chosen for their good skills and abilities for many years. However, knowledge of best-practice accounting standards and other related laws was not one of their special skills (leblance, 2007).
           Audit committees should monitor on financial reporting, risk management, internal controls, compliance with standards of ethics, management, independent auditors and internal auditors. One of the issues that Professional bodies and national and international Community has been always concerned about it is the effectiveness of audit committees.  The aim of this paper is to offer Top of Form ff   بfifteen ways to improve the effectiveness of audit committees. These ways include creating charter, identifying member’s competencies, independence, reporting to the board, sufficient authorities, proper relations with management, member’s participation, effective internal auditing, planning and documentation of decision-making process, effective use of executive sessions, review of previous meeting’s results, preparing a summary of the results at the end of each sessions, effective risk management oversight and control, written procedures that foster open communication and regularly assess the audit committee effectiveness. Top of FormSome of these procedures are related to its audit committee and some others are related to the contextual factors in the firm that influencing audit committee effectiveness.