ACCA AA Syllabus A. Audit Framework And Regulation - Threats - Past Papers ^{3 / 8}

You are an audit supervisor of Caving & Co and you are planning the audit of Hurling Co, a listed company, for the year ending 31 March 20X7. The company manufactures computer components and forecast profit before tax is $33·6m and total assets are $79·3m.

Hurling Co distributes its products through wholesalers as well as via its own website. The website was upgraded during the year at a cost of $1·1m. Additionally, the company entered into a transaction in February to purchase a new warehouse which will cost $3·2m. Hurling Co’s legal advisers are working to ensure that the legal process will be completed by the year end. The company issued $5m of irredeemable preference shares to finance the warehouse purchase.

During the year the finance director has increased the useful economic lives of fixtures and fittings from three to four years as he felt this was a more appropriate period. The finance director has informed the engagement partner that a revised credit period has been agreed with one of its wholesale customers, as they have been experiencing difficulties with repaying the balance of $1·2m owing to Hurling Co. In January 20X7, Hurling Co introduced a new bonus based on sales targets for its sales staff. This has resulted in a significant number of new wholesale customer accounts being opened by sales staff. The new customers have been given favourable credit terms as an introductory offer, provided goods are purchased within a two-month period. As a result, revenue has increased by 5% on the prior year.

The company has launched several new products this year and all but one of these new launches have been successful. Feedback on product Luge, launched four months ago, has been mixed, and the company has just received notice from one of their customers, Petanque Co, of intended legal action. They are alleging the product sold to them was faulty, resulting in a significant loss of information and an ongoing detrimental impact on profits. As a precaution, sales of the Luge product have been halted and a product recall has been initiated for any Luge products sold in the last four months.

The finance director is keen to announce the company’s financial results to the stock market earlier than last year and in order to facilitate this, he has asked if the audit could be completed in a shorter timescale. In addition, the company is intending to propose a final dividend once the financial statements are finalised.

Hurling Co’s finance director has informed the audit engagement partner that one of the company’s non-executive directors (NEDs) has just resigned, and he has enquired if the partners at Caving & Co can help Hurling Co in recruiting a new NED. Specifically he has requested the engagement quality control reviewer, who was until last year the audit engagement partner on Hurling Co, assist the company in this recruitment. Caving & Co also provides taxation services for Hurling Co in the form of tax return preparation along with some tax planning advice. The finance director has recommended to the audit committee of Hurling Co that this year’s audit fee should be based on the company’s profit before tax. At today’s date, 20% of last year’s audit fee is still outstanding and was due to be paid three months ago.

Required:
(c) (i) Identify and explain FIVE ethical threats which may affect the independence of Caving & Co’s audit of Hurling Co; and

(ii) For each threat, suggest a safeguard to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.

Note: The total marks will be split equally between each part. Prepare your answer using two columns headed Ethical threat and Possible Safeguard respectively. (10 marks)

Sycamore & Co is the auditor of Fir Co, a listed computer software company. The audit team comprises an engagement partner, a recently appointed audit manager, an audit senior and a number of audit assistants. The audit engagement partner has only been appointed this year due to the rotation of the previous partner who had been involved in the audit for seven years. Only the audit senior has experience of auditing a company in this specialised industry. The previous audit manager, who is a close friend of the new audit manager, left the firm before the completion of the prior year audit and is now the finance director of Fir Co.

The board of Fir Co has asked if Sycamore & Co can take on some additional work and have asked if the following additional non-audit services can be provided:

(1) Routine maintenance of payroll records
(2) Assistance with the selection of a new financial controller including the checking of references
(3) Tax services whereby Sycamore & Co would liaise with the tax authority on Fir Co’s behalf

Sycamore & Co has identified that the current year fees to be received from Fir Co for audit and other services will represent 16% of the firm’s total fee income and totalled 15·5% in the prior year. The audit engagement partner has asked you to consider what can be done in relation to this self-interest threat.

Which of the following identifies the threat which could arise as a result of the finance director’s previous employment at Sycamore & Co and recommends an appropriate safeguard?

A. A self-review threat; review the work performed by the previous audit manager
B. A familiarity threat; a different audit manager should be appointed
C. A self-review threat; change the existing audit plan
D. A familiarity threat; the firm should resign from the engagement

Sycamore & Co is the auditor of Fir Co, a listed computer software company. The audit team comprises an engagement partner, a recently appointed audit manager, an audit senior and a number of audit assistants. The audit engagement partner has only been appointed this year due to the rotation of the previous partner who had been involved in the audit for seven years. Only the audit senior has experience of auditing a company in this specialised industry. The previous audit manager, who is a close friend of the new audit manager, left the firm before the completion of the prior year audit and is now the finance director of Fir Co.

The board of Fir Co has asked if Sycamore & Co can take on some additional work and have asked if the following additional non-audit services can be provided:

(1) Routine maintenance of payroll records
(2) Assistance with the selection of a new financial controller including the checking of references
(3) Tax services whereby Sycamore & Co would liaise with the tax authority on Fir Co’s behalf

Sycamore & Co has identified that the current year fees to be received from Fir Co for audit and other services will represent 16% of the firm’s total fee income and totalled 15·5% in the prior year. The audit engagement partner has asked you to consider what can be done in relation to this self-interest threat.

Ignoring the potential effect on total fee levels, which of the following options correctly identifies the threats to independence from providing the above non-audit services?

You are an audit manager of Buffon & Co, and you have just been assigned the audit of Maldini Co (Maldini). The audit engagement partner who is responsible for the audit of Maldini, a listed company, has been in place for approximately eight years and her son has just been offered a role with Maldini as a sales manager. This role would entitle him to shares in Maldini as part of his remuneration package.

Maldini’s board of directors is considering establishing an internal audit function, and the finance director has asked Buffon & Co about the differences in the role of internal audit and external audit. If the internal audit function is established, the directors have suggested that they may wish to outsource this to Buffon & Co.

The finance director has suggested to the board that if Buffon & Co is appointed as internal as well as external auditors, then fees should be renegotiated with at least 20% of all internal and external audit fees being based on the profit after tax of the company as this will align the interests of Buffon & Co and Maldini.

From a review of the information above, your audit assistant has highlighted some of the potential risks to independence in respect of the audit of Maldini.

(1) Audit partner has been in the position for eight years

(2) Maldini has asked for advice regarding role of internal audit

(3) Maldini has asked Buffon & Co to carry out internal audit work

(4) Fees will be based on 20% of profit after tax

Which of the following options correctly identifies the valid threats to independence and allocates the threat to the appropriate category?

You are an audit manager of Buffon & Co, and you have just been assigned the audit of Maldini Co (Maldini). The audit engagement partner who is responsible for the audit of Maldini, a listed company, has been in place for approximately eight years and her son has just been offered a role with Maldini as a sales manager. This role would entitle him to shares in Maldini as part of his remuneration package.

Maldini’s board of directors is considering establishing an internal audit function, and the finance director has asked Buffon & Co about the differences in the role of internal audit and external audit. If the internal audit function is established, the directors have suggested that they may wish to outsource this to Buffon & Co.

The finance director has suggested to the board that if Buffon & Co is appointed as internal as well as external auditors, then fees should be renegotiated with at least 20% of all internal and external audit fees being based on the profit after tax of the company as this will align the interests of Buffon & Co and Maldini.

In relation to the audit engagement partner holding the role for eight years and her son’s offer of employment with Maldini:

Which of the following safeguards should be implemented in order to comply with ACCA’s Code of Ethics and Conduct?

A. The audit partner should be removed from the audit team
B. An independent review partner should be appointed
C. The audit partner should be removed if her son accepts the position
D. Buffon & Co should resign from the audit

You are an audit manager of Buffon & Co, and you have just been assigned the audit of Maldini Co (Maldini). The audit engagement partner who is responsible for the audit of Maldini, a listed company, has been in place for approximately eight years and her son has just been offered a role with Maldini as a sales manager. This role would entitle him to shares in Maldini as part of his remuneration package.

Maldini’s board of directors is considering establishing an internal audit function, and the finance director has asked Buffon & Co about the differences in the role of internal audit and external audit. If the internal audit function is established, the directors have suggested that they may wish to outsource this to Buffon & Co.

The finance director has suggested to the board that if Buffon & Co is appointed as internal as well as external auditors, then fees should be renegotiated with at least 20% of all internal and external audit fees being based on the profit after tax of the company as this will align the interests of Buffon & Co and Maldini.

If the internal and external audit assignments are accepted, what safeguards, if any, are needed in relation to the basis for the fee?

A. As long as the total fee received from Maldini is less than 15% of the firm’s total fee income, no safeguards are needed
B. The client should be informed that only the internal audit fee can be based on profit after tax
C. The fees should be based on Maldini’s profit before tax
D. No safeguards can be applied and this basis for fee determination should be rejected

You are an audit manager of Pink Partners & Co (Pink) and are planning the audit of Golden Finance Co (Golden), a banking institution which provides a range of financial services including loans. Your firm has audited Golden for four years and the company’s year end is 30 September 2015.

At the end of August, Golden’s financial controller left and the new replacement is not due to start until approximately two months after the year end. The finance director, who is the sister-in-law of the audit engagement partner, has asked if a member of the audit team can be seconded to Golden for three months to act as the temporary financial controller.

You are aware that a number of the audit team members currently bank with Golden and two team members have significant loans owing to the company.

Pink’s taxation department also provides services to Golden. They have been approached by Golden to represent them in negotiations to resolve some outstanding issues with the taxation authorities, for which the fees quoted are substantial.

The finance director has informed the audit engagement partner that when the audit is complete, she would like the whole team to attend an evening watching the national football team play a match followed by a luxury meal.

Required:
Using the information above:

(ii) For each threat, explain how it might be reduced to an acceptable level.
Note: The total marks will be split equally between each part.

You are an audit senior of Beech & Co and have been allocated to the audit of Willow Wands Co (Willow), a listed company which has been an audit client for eight years and specialises in manufacturing musical instruments.

Bethan Oak was the audit engagement partner for Willow and as she had completed seven years as the audit engagement partner, she has recently been rotated off the audit engagement. The current audit partner, Sandeep Pine, has suggested that in order to maintain a close relationship with Willow, Bethan should undertake the role of independent review partner this year. In addition Willow has requested that Bethan assist them by attending their audit committee meetings, as a non-executive director has recently left the company.

Willow has also asked Sandeep and the other partners at Beech & Co to help them in recruiting a new non-executive director.

The total fees received by Beech & Co for last year equated to 16% of the firm’s total fee income. The current year’s audit fee has not yet been confirmed, but along with taxation and other possible non-audit fees the total income from Willow this year could be greater than for last year. Last year’s audit fee was being paid monthly by Willow but no payments have been made for the last three months.

The audit manager for Willow has just announced that he is leaving Beech & Co to join Willow as the financial controller.

Required:
Using the information above:
(i) Identify and explain FIVE ethical threats which may affect the independence of Beech & Co’s audit of Willow Wands Co; and

(ii) For each threat explain how it might be reduced to an acceptable level.
Note: The total marks will be split equally between each part.

The audit engagement partner for Hazard Co (Hazard), a listed company, has been in place for approximately six years and her son has just accepted a job offer from Hazard as a sales manager. This role would entitle him to shares in Hazard as part of his remuneration package.

Hazard’s directors are considering establishing an internal audit department, and the finance director has asked the audit firm, Remy & Co about the differences between internal audit and external audit.

If the internal audit department is established, and Remy & Co is appointed as internal as well as external auditors, then Hazard has suggested that the external audit fee should be renegotiated with at least 20% of the fee being based on the profit after tax of the company as they feel this will align the interests of Remy & Co and Hazard.

Required:
(a) Using the information above:

(ii) For each threat explain how it might be reduced to an acceptable level. (3 marks)