Rose recently started working as a graduate accountant with Red Gum Accountants. Jasmin is a senior at Red Gum Accountants and is mentoring Rose:

Rose and Jasmin spend their time provide accounting services to four clients of Red Gum Accountants. Three clients are very profitable businesses but the fourth client is Olive Branch, which is a charity that provides shelter for flood victims. Due to increased incidence of flooding. Olive Branch is facing financial difficulties and may close one of its branches.

Red Gum Accountants requires its staff to complete time sheets that show how much time is spent on work for each client. The time sheets are used for billing clients (e.g., if the time sheets show 100 hours of work for a client, that client will be billed, that is, charged fees for 100 hours of accounting

services).

Rose and Jasmin each spent 100 hours in July providing accounting services for Olive Branch, with the rest of their time spent on small tasks for the other three clients. Rose completed her time sheet accurately and showed it to Jasmin.

Jasmin said to Rose, "I recorded only 70 hours for Olive Branch on the time sheet and allocated the rest to the other clients. It's my way of helping the charity. You should do the same. Our time sheets should look similar as we work together on the same tasks."

Rose needs to decide whether to comply with Jasmin's request to record less time spent on Oliver Branch and record more time spent on the other clients on the time sheet.

Please label each part of your answer as A) B) C) D) or E).

Required

A. Identify two individuals or groups who are stakeholders and their rights or the duties owed to them by Rose. (4 marks)

B. Ethical review: Describe two specific principles that are relevant to the ethical problem faced by Rose and explain why each principle is relevant and, if applicable, threatened. At least one principle should be from the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. (see extract at the end of this question) (3 marks)

C. Identify two alternative courses of action to consider. Label the options i) and li). (2 marks)

D. Investigate the ethical outcomes of each alternative with reference to the principles that you identified in part B) as being most relevant, and how each option affects the stakeholders identified in part A). Clearly identify each option in your evaluation and conclude with a recommendation. (9 marks)

E. What could the partners of Red Gum Accountants do to reduce the threat to one of the ethical principles identified in your response to part B)? (2 marks)