Write answers to each of the five (5) situations described below addressing the required criteria (i.e. 1 & 2) in each independent case. You may use a tabulated format if helpful having Threats, Safeguards and Objective Assessment as column headings.

Liam Neeson has been appointed as a junior auditor of Brilliant Accounting Limited (BAL). One of his first tasks is to review the firms audit clients to ensure that independence requirements of APES 110 (Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants) are being met. His review has revealed the following:

(a) BAL has recently been approached by Western Development Limited (WDL) to conduct its audit to which BAL has agreed. Ric Flair, one of the partners at BAL, is being considered to lead the audit of WDL. Rics wife Wendy Barlow has recently purchased significant amount of shares in Freo Minerals Limited (FML). WDL is also known to have a substantial investment in FML and influence FMLs key decisions.

(b) BAL has recently been approached by Bluecorp Group Limited (BGL) to conduct its audit to which BAL has agreed. The accountant at BGL, Paul Levesque is the son in law of Vincent McMahon CA, who is an audit partner at BAL. Vincent put in a request to lead the BGL audit. Vincent believes that he can get the BGL audit completed efficiently and effectively since he gets along really well with Paul. However, being aware of Vincents relationship with Paul, BAL will not be assigning Vincent to the audit team of BGL.

Required: For each of the independent situations above, and using the conceptual framework in APES 110 (Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants), answer the following questions:

1. Identify potential threat(s) to independence & recommend safeguards (if any) to reduce the independence threat(s) identified.

2. Provide an objective assessment of whether audit independence can be achieved