Additional interviews were carried out at the local office level of tbe firms
in our study, providing another source of data. An audit partner from each of
the firms was interviewed. These local office audit partners were located at
offices some distance away from the ACU and were users of ACU services.^
We selected the local office and the partner independently of the firm's ACU
staff. The ACU staff were unaware beforehand that we were interviewing local
office partners. In addition, a recent consultation in which the local partner was
involved was walked through to gain further insights into the process.