CPA Independence Evaluation

It is explicitly stated in the "Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles" of the Company that the independence and competence of the CPAs retained by the Company as independent auditors shall be assessed at regular intervals. In practice, the Board will conduct an assessment of the independence and competence of the CPAs retained for audit services at least once a year. 

The CPAs provided the "Declaration of Independence," "Questionnaire on the Assessment of Independence of CPAs" and AQI information as reference for the Board in assessing the independence of the CPAs. The items for assessment are:

• Is the CPA holding significant financial interest related to the Company
• Is there any business relation between the CPA and the Company and the related parties of the Company that affects the status of independence
• Has the CPA held position as a director, manager of the Company or in a position that caused significant influence on the audit in the last 3 years
• Is there any others that affects the independence and impartiality of the CPA

The audit quality indicators include:

• Firm-level and engagement-level profession (audit experience, training hours, attrition rate, professional support)
• Independence (proportion of CPA fees for non-audit services, customer familiarity)
• Quality control (workload, quality supporting capacity)
• Monitoring (external inspection results and enforcement, improvement letters issued by authority)
• Innovation (innovative planning or initiatives)