IMPARTIALITY POLICY

Vine Consultancy is committed to delivering impartial, objective, and professional audit services in full compliance with SAC CT 17 requirements (based on ISO/IEC 17021-1). We recognise impartiality as the foundation of trust in our audit and assessment services. This policy sets out our commitment and the safeguards established to ensure impartiality.

Vine acknowledges its responsibility for ensuring the impartiality of its auditing activities.

Vine Consultancy is committed to the following principles:

• Integrity and Impartiality: All assessments will be conducted fairly, objectively, and without bias or favoritism.

• Independent Decision-Making: Audit conclusions and reports are based solely on objective evidence.

• Conflict of Interest Management: All staff are required to declare actual, perceived, or potential conflicts. Risks are managed through regular identification, documentation, and treatment.

• Transparency: Processes are transparent to stakeholders and available upon request.

• Confidentiality: All client information is treated as confidential and secured appropriately.

• Accountability: Top management ensures impartiality is integrated in all activities and monitored effectively.

Vine Consultancy's top management is committed to impartiality in its auditing activities.

Vine recognizes the following as threats to impartiality: self-interest, such as financial gain from clients; self-review, such as auditing systems one was involved in developing; familiarity or trust, such as auditing long-term clients without rotating assessors; and pressure, such as influence from clients or regulators.

Vine conducts ongoing risk assessment and monitoring through a documented process to identify, analyze, treat, monitor, and record risks to impartiality. Vine's top management reviews residual risks for acceptability, considering sources such as ownership, governance, personnel, relationships, shared resources, contracts, and financial dependencies, while all personnel are required to declare potential conflicts annually and upon new engagements.

Vine maintains safeguards to ensure impartiality in our operations. Staff and auditors must not audit any client they have provided consultancy to within the past two years. We shall not assign auditors or technical experts who are currently employed by the client (contract or otherwise) or have consulted for the client in the last two years. Vine’s audit and consultancy functions are structurally and functionally separate. An annual impartiality review is conducted to assess risks, update the risk register, and ensure declarations are up to date. All relevant personnel are required to sign conflict of interest declaration forms. External auditors must not concurrently work with other AOs, and changes are promptly communicated to SAC. Vine Consultancy does not allow commercial, financial, or other pressures to compromise the impartiality of its auditing activities.

Vine is committed to continual improvement of impartiality safeguards through annual management review and stakeholder feedback. Concerns about impartiality may be submitted to vineconsultancyadm@gmail.com. Complaints will be investigated confidentially, and appropriate corrective actions taken.