Matthew Damon has been appointed as a junior auditor of AwesomewaterhouseCoopers (AwC).

Matthew Damon has been appointed as a junior auditor of AwesomewaterhouseCoopers (AwC). One of his first tasks is to review the firm’s audit clients to ensure that independence requirements of APES 110 (Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants) are being met. His review has revealed the following:

(1) Jessica Parker is an assurance manager with AwC and it has just been decided to allocate her to the audit of Fresh Foods Limited (FFL). Jessica’s financially dependent daughter, Sarah, who is still in high school has recently used all her inheritance from her grandfather to buy a small parcel of shares in FFL.

Required:

Using the conceptual framework in APES 110 (Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants), identify potential threat(s) to independence & recommend safeguards (if any) to reduce the independence threat(s) identified. Also, provide an objective assessment of whether audit independence can be achieved.