4 You are a senior manager in Becker & Co, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants o

Question

4 You are a senior manager in Becker & Co, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants offering audit and assurance

services mainly to large, privately owned companies. The firm has suffered from increased competition, due to two

new firms of accountants setting up in the same town. Several audit clients have moved to the new firms, leading to

loss of revenue, and an over staffed audit department. Bob McEnroe, one of the partners of Becker & Co, has asked

you to consider how the firm could react to this situation. Several possibilities have been raised for your consideration:

1. Murray Co, a manufacturer of electronic equipment, is one of Becker & Co’s audit clients. You are aware that the

company has recently designed a new product, which market research indicates is likely to be very successful.

The development of the product has been a huge drain on cash resources. The managing director of Murray Co

has written to the audit engagement partner to see if Becker & Co would be interested in making an investment

in the new product. It has been suggested that Becker & Co could provide finance for the completion of the

development and the marketing of the product. The finance would be in the form. of convertible debentures.

Alternatively, a joint venture company in which control is shared between Murray Co and Becker & Co could be

established to manufacture, market and distribute the new product.

2. Becker & Co is considering expanding the provision of non-audit services. Ingrid Sharapova, a senior manager in

Becker & Co, has suggested that the firm could offer a recruitment advisory service to clients, specialising in the

recruitment of finance professionals. Becker & Co would charge a fee for this service based on the salary of the

employee recruited. Ingrid Sharapova worked as a recruitment consultant for a year before deciding to train as

an accountant.

3. Several audit clients are experiencing staff shortages, and it has been suggested that temporary staff assignments

could be offered. It is envisaged that a number of audit managers or seniors could be seconded to clients for

periods not exceeding six months, after which time they would return to Becker & Co.

Required:

Identify and explain the ethical and practice management implications in respect of:

(a) A business arrangement with Murray Co. (7 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
4 Becker & Co
(a) Joint business arrangement
The business opportunity in respect of Murray Co could be lucrative if the market research is to be believed.
However, IFAC’s Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants states that a mutual business arrangement is likely to give rise
to self-interest and intimidation threats to independence and objectivity. The audit firm must be and be seen to be independent
of the audit client, which clearly cannot be the case if the audit firm and the client are seen to be working together for a
mutual financial gain.
In the scenario, two options are available. Firstly, Becker & Co could provide the audit client with finance to complete the
development and take the product to market. There is a general prohibition on audit firms providing finance to their audit
clients. This would create a clear financial self-interest threat as the audit firm would be receiving a return on investment from
their client. The Code states that if a firm makes a loan (or guarantees a loan) to a client, the self-interest threat created would
be so significant that no safeguard could reduce the threat to an acceptable level.
The provision of finance using convertible debentures raises a further ethical problem, because if the debentures are ultimately
converted to equity, the audit firm would then hold equity shares in their audit client. This is a severe financial self-interest,
which safeguards are unlikely to be able to reduce to an acceptable level.
The finance should not be advanced to Murray Co while the company remains an audit client of Becker & Co.
The second option is for a joint venture company to be established. This would be perceived as a significant mutual business
interest as Becker & Co and Murray Co would be investing together, sharing control and sharing a return on investment in
the form. of dividends. IFAC’s Code of Ethics states that unless the relationship between the two parties is clearly insignificant,
the financial interest is immaterial, and the audit firm is unable to exercise significant influence, then no safeguards could
reduce the threat to an acceptable level. In this case Becker & Co may not enter into the joint venture arrangement while
Murray Co is still an audit client.
The audit practice may consider that investing in the new electronic product is a commercial strategy that it wishes to pursue,
either through loan finance or using a joint venture arrangement. In this case the firm should resign as auditor with immediate
effect in order to eliminate any ethical problem with the business arrangement. The partners should carefully consider if the
potential return on investment will more than compensate for the lost audit fee from Murray Co.
The partners should also reflect on whether they want to diversify to such an extent – this investment is unlikely to be in an
area where any of the audit partners have much knowledge or expertise. A thorough commercial evaluation and business risk
analysis must be performed on the new product to ensure that it is a sound business decision for the firm to invest.
The audit partners should also consider how much time they would need to spend on this business development, if they
decided to resign as auditors and to go ahead with the investment. Such a new and important project could mean that they
take their focus off the key business i.e. the audit practice. They should consider if it would be better to spend their time trying
to compete effectively with the two new firms of accountants, trying to retain key clients, and to attract new accounting and
audit clients rather than diversify into something completely different.