Before your firm accepts any additional ongoing engagement, for example new audits, the partners meet to decide on whether the engagement should be accepted. The firm is mindful of the requirements to conduct preliminary engagement activities including compliance with ISA 220 Quality management for an audit of financial information. The following prospective audit clientsarebeingevaluated.Yourfirmhassevenpartnersandadiverseportfolioofclientsranging form small business entities to medium-sized companies. None of its existing audit clients is a listed company.

1. Apex(Pty)Ltdacompanywhichsellsequipmenttotheminingindustries,hasapproached your firm with an offer that you take over the audit of the company. A significant amount of additional non-audit work has also executive directors were recently alleged to have been involved ii tender fraud, but nothing has been proved. They have both denied any involvement.Thecurrentauditorshaveindicatedtheir intentions nottomakethemselves available for reappointment.
2. CalypsodistributorsLtd,alargefishingcompanyinDurban,whichwasrecentlyconvicted for exceeding its fishing quotas, and threatened with closure by the authorities should it occurs again as this was not a first offence. Should your firm accept engagement, it will be the third auditing firm to have been appointed in the last four years. The previous auditors have resigned. The company is a public company but is not listed.
3. Impetus (Pty) Ltd, a medium -sized company which is about to expend considerably through a BB BEE dearly that involves a large, listed company. The listed company requiresthatImpetus(Pty)Ltdbeexternallyauditedannually.Ourfirmhasnoexperience in the industry in which Impetus (Pty) Ltd be and the listed company operate.
4. Appollo(Pty)Ltd, asmallcompanywhichisownedbyFrankNgabo,thefatherofoneof your firm's partners.Frank Ngabo believes that having the company audited externally adds to its credibility when negotiating with prospective business patterns.

1. Akili (Pty) Ltd, is medium-sized company in the light engineering sector. The directors informedyourfirmthatthey werechangingtheirauditorsbecausetheirprevious auditors had "different views" to them (the directors) on which accounting policies were appropriated for their company. They have declined to provide specific details. The previous auditors would not comment on this stating only that the directors of Akili (Pty) Ltd had not given them permission to discuss the company's affairs.
2. Impi(Pty)Ltd,acompanywhichprovidescompaniesandgovernmentsoperatinginAfrica withsecuritypersonnel,includingbodyguardsandequipmentsuchasarmouredvehicles and firearms. The audit fees paid to the previous auditors were substantial.
3. Axiomfinancialservicesclient,UnionBank,islookingfornewauditor.Duringthelatsyear the company had been in the news for several reasons, including landing a multi-million dollar deal, a cybercrime incident where some of its clients' information may have been compromised(the scale of the event has not been determined); making a large donation to welfare organization; and lastly the firing of its head of trading due to "suspicious trading". The cybercrime incident and thefiring of the head of trading have causedmuch social media traffic.

YOUAREREQUIREDTO:

Discuss the matters to which your firm should give consideration, when deciding on whether to accept the above prospective audit appointments.