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Cut along the bias.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorCullen, Noel
PositionLetter to the editor

Your article on auditing independence (June) was timely in that it raised the issue of how supposedly independent audit firms can offer management consulting or other advice to clients in an unbiased manner--and how few audit firms see any ethical dilemma in this.

All of the big four accounting firms have recently resurrected their consultancy businesses, rebranding them as "client-side advisory services" or similar, because the non-compete arrangements that led many of them to sell their consultancy businesses after the Enron scandal have now expired.

Having started my consulting career at one of the big four, which was later acquired by a technology provider, I am well aware of the pressure to cross-sell other advisory services to clients. This is something that finance departments should not expect from an audit firm, Indeed, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 and similar legislation and...

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