Alex Caldwell was a founder and senior partner of Caldwell, Burns, and Burns Public Accountants. He was very proud of his firm, his staff, and the fact that the firm was still earning good fees when other firms were struggling. Part of his success was the effort he had put into nurturing the relationship with Hugo Marshall. His “charm offensive", as he liked to refer to his efforts, meant that Hugo Marshall always felt comfortable with using Caldwell and his accountants.

There was a negative side to this approach, however. Caldwell’s firm had become unhealthily dependent upon Marshall. Worse, Marshall seemed to become more arrogant each year and more abrasive towards Caldwell’s staff. This year any accountant who had worked on Marshall’s account has resigned or simply refused to have anything to do with it. This forced him to put a young staff member in charge of the account, Fiona Willis, who had only recently achieved her Chartered Accountant qualification. Caldwell was very uneasy about this, but what else could he have done?

Caldwell was also uneasy about his own behavior when responding to Marshall's increasingly unreasonable demands. In the past, Caldwell might have overruled his accountants on small matters, but now Marshall demanded that he falsify data on more important issues. He, Caldwell, had started down a path he had never intended to go down and now Marshall had him trapped. Caldwell was wondering with some dread when the next demand from Marshall would come when his phone rang. It was Marshall! Caldwell sighed and just as he was about to pick up the phone he saw Fiona Willis standing at his doorway looking very pale. This can't be good, Caldwell thought.

Alex Caldwell is a Chartered Accountant and so are the accountants in the firm, and therefore APES 110 applies to all of them.

Advise Caldwell of the provisions of APES 110 that are relevant here, especially the fundamental principles, types of threats, and relevant safeguards. Advice Caldwell of what he must do to be compliant with APES 110.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

As per APES 110 A Member shall comply with fundamental principles 1Integrity to be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relatio... View the full answer