Scenarios:

$1.$ You are a staff accountant with the firm of Vogel & O$$Donnell$.$ You spend a significant

portion of the year working on manufacturing client, Eskimo Equipment Corp. where you

have developed a good reputation with senior client personnel and are perceived to deliver

good work. One afternoon the Company$$s corporate controller, Doug DeMario, finds you

alone in the audit room and closes the door as he asks to speak with you in private. Getting

right to the point, Doug informs you that his assistant controller has just announced her

decision to leave the Company and become an accounting professor at Canisius

University. Doug asks whether you might be interested in interviewing for the position.

$2.$ While working at the firm of Vogel & O$$Donnell and on the Gaston Industries audit

engagement, you are approached by the engagement partner, Tom Iverson who asks you a

favor. Specifically, Tom informs you that Gaston has recently been plagued by departures

of its accounting and financial reporting staff. As one of the largest clients in your office,

Iverson says that it is critical to the firm that we keep the client happy and well served. In

order to pitch$$in and assist Gaston management, Tom has offered you up to assist Gaston

management in closing the books for the $2023$ fiscal year. Specifically, he wants you to

review the reconciliations performed by Gaston$$s accounting manager before they are

considered complete and ready for examination by the audit team.

$3.$ You are an audit staff at the firm of Vogel & O$$Donnell and are currently working on the

financial statement audit of Harris Oil. The audit manager, Slick Hoskins, meets with you

privately and tells you that your audit area of accounts receivable is running well over

budget. He coyly mentions that the Firm$$s staff evaluation process will begin shortly and

that one of the most important staff evaluation criteria is the staff member$$s ability to work

within budget. Slick mentions that, when he was in your shoes, he would regularly $$eat

time$$ to stay within budget $($eating time is the practice of not reporting all of the time you

spend working on a particular audit area $$ e$.$g$.,$ you work a $10$hour day but post only $8$

hours to the Firm$$s time reporting system$).$ After sharing this tidbit with you, Slick gives you

a knowing wink and leaves the room.

Requirements:

$1.$ Read all three scenarios above and prepare a written response to questions a$,$ b$,$ and c for

each scenario

a$.$ Does this scenario present a problem to the firm of Vogen & O$$Donnell$?$ Explain why

or why not.

b$.$ Does the scenario present a problem for you personally?

c$.$ What should you do$?$

$2.$ In a written response, explain why audit professionals need to be concerned about

independence an objectivity in the performance of their work. What are the potential

consequences if they fail to do so$?$

$3.$ Finding and retaining clients is hard. Is it worth terminating a client relationship due to

independence concerns? Explain your response.

$4.$ Your employer is paying your salary. Do you agree that this gives them the right to expect

you to follow any instruction they give you? In matters impacting your personal integrity, is

your first responsibility to them or to yourself?

$5.$ Submit the written responses to the above questions in Dropbox before the due date

$6.$ Be prepared to discuss your response$($s$)$ in class. You will be called on to discuss.