Audit independence has been important issue, particularly over the past ten years. A number of the requirements associated with auditor appointment and removal are to enhance the independence of the audit process. An auditing academic was heard to make the following statement:

True audit independence can never be achieved! Auditors operate in a commercial environment and need to work to win the audit of a client. The ongoing fees that they receive are then obviously conditional on management's approval. If management is unhappy with the auditor they will find a way to get rid of them — it is as simple as that. Perhaps a solution could be to give the role of appointing auditors to ASIC? They could allocate auditors to the top 300 listed companies and give them a fixed term audit for five years. Then they would reallocate auditors to those companies.

Auditors would not have to compromise their independence to win the client or keep the client. It is a brilliant idea — even if I do say so myself!

Required

Discuss the academic's proposal.