Reference no: EM132650627

You are the auditor of Ocean Fresh Ltd (OFL) for the year ended 30 June 2018.  OFL is a manufacturer of tinned shellfish products. It purchases fresh shellfish from local suppliers, and frozen shellfish from South East Asia and processes it into tins at its Melbourne factory and then transports it by road to supermarkets around Australia.

You became aware of the following material event:

• On 1 July 2018 a customer at a Perth supermarket purchased a tin of OFL prawns and took it home to have with dinner. That night she became violently ill and was hospitalised. It was discovered that the cause of her illness was the tin of prawns, which was part of a contaminated batch made from a material batch of shellfish imported from South East Asia. The customer suffered severe pain and paralysis that is likely to be permanent. As a result, she lodged a lawsuit against OFL on 15 August 2018 for unspecified damages, due to the serious long-term effects of her injuries.
• The financial statements and auditor's report are due to be finalised on 31 August 2018.
• The finance director of OFL is also considering establishing an internal audit department and is unsure what factors he should consider when making his decision.

Question:

Question a) List three (3) sources of information that would be of use in gaining an understanding of OFL, and for each source describe what information you would expect to obtain.

Question b) Bearing in mind the differences and similarities between the roles of an internal auditor compared to an external auditor, outline two (2) factors the finance director should consider before establishing an internal audit department.

Question c) Explain how the event identified above should be treated by OFL in the financial statements.

Question d) Outline the implications for the auditor's report, if any, assuming that this event is appropriately treated as per requirement (c). Justify your answer.

Question e) Determine the type of auditor's opinion that you should issue if OFL does not appropriately reflect this event in the financial statements. Justify your answer.

Question f) Determine the type of auditor's opinion that you should issue if OFL will not allow you to obtain a solicitor's letter concerning the lawsuit. Justify your answer.