Self-review threats occur when a previous judgement needs to be re-evaluated by members responsible for that judgement. For example, where a member has been involved in maintaining the accounting records of a client he may be unwilling to find fault with the financial statements derived from those records. Again, this would threaten the fundamental principle of objectivity.
Circumstances which may give rise to self‐interest threats for members include:
- business decisions or data being reviewed by the same person who made those decisions or prepared that data
- being in a position to exert direct and significant influence over an entity’s financial reports
- the discovery of a significant error during a re-evaluation of the work undertaken by the member
- reporting on the operation of financial systems after being involved in their design or implementation
- a member of the assurance team being, or having recently been, employed by the client in a position to exert direct and significant influence over the subject matter of the engagement
- performing a service for a client that directly affects the subject matter of an assurance engagement.