Question

You are an audit manager working for Scott & Co, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants based in Bradford. Your speciality is in the audit of companies in the Brand Design and Consultancy industry. Some issues have recently arisen in relation to a client which require your immediate attention. Track One Ltd is a large, private company which is currently owned by the Wittington family, who hold the majority of the company’s shares. Following the completion of the audit this year, the finance director and a family member, Mark Wittington, contacted you and told you that the family is considering listing the company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). They would like to recruit one of your audit partners for a fivemonth period to help prepare for the listing. Since the board is concerned that the necessary skills and personnel to support the listing are not currently present within the company, Mark Wittington has also requested that your firm assist them in identifying and recruiting new members to the board. Currently, most of the executive director roles are performed by family members, except for the directors of operations and human resources, who are both longserving employees. The board does not have an audit committee and there is only one non-executive director, who works elsewhere as a Branding consultant. Other than the recruitment of new board members, Track One Ltd is not planning to make any changes to its governance structure prior to or subsequent to listing on the LSE. Track One Ltd’s current financial year ends on 31 December 2019, and audit planning is scheduled to take place in October 2020. Required Critically evaluate the ethical issues and professional matters in relation to the recruitment requests made by Track One Ltd.

Answer 1

The major ethical issue standing out in the above scenario is that where the Auditor is asked by the client to engage as an employee in the business of its own client. This not only affects the independence of the auditor in a major way, but also against the regulations laid down by various regulatory authorities such as SEC, etc.

Further if the client is considering to list, one of the pre-requisites of such listing is to ensure that the auditor of such company is coompletely independent from the client and has no existing relations whatsoever.

An entire framework, called as the Code of Ethics, has been laid down, specifying in detail the requirement of professionalism and ethics in such a manner that does not harm the auditor's independence in any given manner. Such code of ethics, if not followed by the auditors, may also attract stringent penalties and fines, including giving up his right to become such an auditor.

Therefore, the auditor should strictly deny any such engagement and try to maintain his professionalism and independence at the highest standards, at all times possible.

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