Reference no: EM132751037

Question - You are a junior auditor and a client Alpaca Ltd has bred a top quality, valuable, herd of alpacas that is recognised on the balance sheet as inventory. You need to go and count the inventory and confirm the alpaca inventory on the balance sheet. At the stocktake there are 10 pens (enclosures) of alpacas but you only have access to one pen. As the alpacas are agitated it is difficult to count them. You think there are about 70 in there- but the client's stock manager tell you there are 100. You alert the audit manager that you have concerns over the quantity of the stock. You were also worried that you do not know one type of alpaca from another- so you did not know if there were the high value alpacas or just ordinary alpacas.

The audit manager notes that the client has been a long-standing audit client and that the audit firm can rely on the client's honesty, integrity and business experience to correctly value the cattle stock. The audit manager is a friend of the CFO of the client and they trained as chartered accountants together. The audit manager is really nice but slightly submissive and meek, and is married to the audit engagement partner who is quite formidable with a hierarchical approach to managing audit engagements and the audit firm.

Required - Identify and explain the existing and potential threats to you as an auditor with regard to professional ethics.