Issue (c) was about a potential conflict of interest between two audit clients and confidentiality of information. The audit firm had been asked to provide advice on a tender for an important contract that one audit client was preparing in relation to a different audit client. Many candidates did correctly determine that a conflict of interest would arise and could recommend appropriate safeguards.

However, many answers failed to identify the potential issues surrounding the confidentiality of client information. Some candidates tried to include a comment on every one of the ethical principles – many of which were irrelevant. It is a better exam technique to focus on the most relevant of the ethical threats, and not to try to cover all of them, especially when there are only five marks available.