Thank you for clarifying.
Once you agree that procedures are in place to ensure that the company has the necessary technical skills, you must also consider whether it has the necessary financial capacity.
Right now, many companies are going through a very difficult time financially. It is therefore important at this juncture to ask whether the company has undergone any major changes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether its financial structure has weakened and whether internal company controls have changed. In fact, we are seeing more and more companies lean toward resorting to non-traditional external financing.
Unfortunately, some studies show that criminal organizations tend to be the source of some of this kind of emergency funding. Abroad, and, these days, a little more in Canada, it seems that organized crime has infiltrated businesses that were quite legitimate and is using them to launder some money from non-legitimate activities.
The important thing is to find out whether a change of control or shareholders has taken place. Often, we deal with suppliers we have known and trusted for a very long time. However, even if they are the same people, it is important to ask them specifically whether or not they have sold shares or whether the shareholders have changed substantially.