ASSIGNMENT
QUESTION
The
following are independent situations and you should refer to APES (Accounting Professional and
Ethical Standards 110 “Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants”)and the Corporations Act 2001 as a
minimum for each situation. You need to identify any breaches (under what
section) and why. You should also consider any remedy or alternative course of
action that should have been considered for each where appropriate.
There is no
word limit set for this assignment but it is expected that each question will
be well-covered and considered. Guidelines would be that each question should
be of between XXXXXXXXXXwords
1) Rodney Brick is completing a Master of
Accounting part-time and has taken on a role as an auditing assistant with an
audit/accounting firm and his first job is to assist with auditing the books of
Daffey Jones Ltd, a major retailer. Whilst undertaking the audit, Rodney comes
across certain financial information that he believes will assist him in
completing one of the auditing assignments he is currently working on so he
copies the information and uses it in the assignment, although he is careful by
removing all reference to Daffey Jones in order to preserve the client’s
confidentiality.
Question: Has
Rodney breached any auditing standards/regulations and if so, what and why?(6
marks)
2) Bertha Bigga
has been the engagement audit partner on the Wait Alert Limited (“WA”) account
for a number of years. Roughly one year ago, WA’s long-standing company
secretary resigned and the company took almost nine months to find a
replacement. At WA’s request, Bertha performed company secretarial duties
during this period of time.
Question:
Do you have any concerns and are there any breaches that have occurred here? (4
marks)
3) John
Bartram is the son of the factory manager of one of your firm’s major audit
clients, John Worst Foods Limited. John is studying accounting, with a
specialisation in auditing at Holmes Institute. John applied for work during
the summer where he could both earn money as well as gain first-hand experience
in his area of interest. He is assigned to the audit of John Worst’s Foods
Limited where part of his audit work consisted of testing the internal controls
of the cash payments and cash receipts system.
Q: What is
the issue in this situation and what sections of the Act are bought into
question? Is there something that should be in place with the audit firm? (4 marks)
(4) Ocean
Adventures Limited is a large importer/wholesaler of luxury cruise boats and is
currently experiencing financial difficulties. Their audit firm is PVC Partners
but they have not paid the audit fees for the past three years. The audit
partner recently threatened to resign from the audit if the outstanding fees
were not paid. To prevent this occurring, Ocean Adventures offered to supply
AUDITRUS with a nine-metre cruise boat as payment. The partner accepted this
offer in full consideration of the outstanding fees, even though the boat was
only worth 75% of the balance.
As a gift,
Ocean Adventures also gave the partner a 15% shareholding in an unrelated
company. At present these shares are worth $21,500.
Q: What if
any, issues exist in this situation? Should PVC have accepted boat and the gift
(consider each one separately in your answer). (6
marks)