Independence has always been a fundamental aspect of the accountancy profession. A commentary in 2003 suggested the following:

... the public interest will be best served by reprioritising professional and ethical objectives to establish reliability in fact and appearance as the cornerstone of the profession, rather than relationship-based independence in fact and appearance.

Required:

Based on the series of accounting crises and corporate collapses in the early 2000s, discuss the importance of maintaining independence (and reliability) by an auditor. What do you think of the above comment?