Growbig plc used to be a medium-sized company trading in agricultural supplies and chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. It was owned by a consortium of farmers and growers and on flotation as a public company they each received shares and these still form the majority of shareholders even though individual shareholdings are relatively small. On flotation Growbig also issued shares which were taken up by institutional investors and there are now four major shareholders who together own about 35 per cent of the company, the remaining shareholders being the original farmers and growers. It used the funds to buy out rival businesses and to expand production of fertilizers and pesticides under its own brand to sell to the general public. Growbig complies with all the legal disclosure requirements but does not provide shareholders with any other information. Recently there has been adverse publicity with regard to ‘dumping’ products which are not allowed to be sold in the UK under environmental legislation on to the market in various developing countries using a different brand name and also the lack of health and safety provision in one of their factories overseas which manufactures fertilizer.

(a) Identify the stakeholders in this company.
(b) What information would they require?
(c) How should the auditors respond to the adverse publicity? Should they go beyond statutory reporting duties and investigate the accusations against the company?