a) Asumasi Opoku has recently been appointed as a partner of Offei-Ansah & Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants. He has been a close friend of the Engagement Partner (EP), the firm’s managing partner for many years. Asumasi was previously the training manager in the firm and he has now been asked to act as training partner. This is the first time Offei-Ansah & Co have designated a particular partner as having responsibility for training.
One of the audit trainees, Ellen Danso, noted that she was disturbed by something that had happened on an audit of a company called Bremang Ltd, a medium-sized family-run business and longstanding client of Offei-Ansah & Co.
Ellen was auditing purchases of non-current assets when she noticed a transaction that she thought might be suspicious. There was a charge of GH¢125,000 (an individually material amount) for a Power Plant for an address in a rural area (no electricity) with no obvious link to the company. When she asked Bremang’s financial controller about the matter, she was told it referred to the installation of such a plant in a house owned by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This was to facilitate excellent communications and interaction with the CEO especially during the last quarter of the year when he liked to reside there with his family. She further explained that part of the cost was attributed to having to pay for a personal broadband connection since the house was in an isolated area where normal broadband connections were unavailable.
The financial controller appeared surprised and even irritated by the queries about the matter and said that auditors had not previously been concerned about the company being charged for non-current assets and operational expenses at properties owned by the CEO.
The engagement partner on the assignment happened to be the managing partner. Ellen told him what she had found and the Engagement Partner simply said that the charge could probably be ignored. He did, however, say that he would include a reference to the matter in the written representations letter required by ISA 580: Written Representations adding with a smile that “paper never refused ink”. About two months later, Ellen looked at the completed files and the letter of representation in which there was no reference to the matter.
When Asumasi Opoku heard about Ellen’s concerns, he realised that there was an ethical issue. At the very least the transaction should have been disclosed as a related party transaction under IAS 24: Related Party Disclosures but the situation was made more complicated by the fact that the Engagement Partner was (for all practical purposes) still Asumasi’s boss in Offei-Ansah & Co.
Required:
i) Explain TWO (2) reasons why integrity in professional relationships such as those described in the above scenario is vital. (2 marks)
ii) Evaluate FOUR (4) ethical and professional behavior issues relating to the stance of the Engagement Partner. (8 marks)