【总结】2020年ACCA考试难度分析报告

正确答案：
(c) The directors might select Contract D under which 360,000 kilograms of organic mushrooms would be supplied to HFL for
each outlet. This is the entire capacity of HFL which would ensure that competitors would not be able to supply the same
product and hence the competitive advantage held by HFL might be preserved.

正确答案：

 

正确答案：
(ii) Actuarial services to an audit client
IFAC’s ‘Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants’ does not deal specifically with actuarial valuation services but with
valuation services in general.
A valuation comprises:
■ making assumptions about the future;
■ applying certain methodologies and techniques;
■ computing a value (or range of values) for an asset, a liability or for a business as a whole.
A self-review threat may be created when a firm or network firm2 performs a valuation for a financial statement audit
client that is to be incorporated into the client’s financial statements.
As an actuarial valuation service is likely to involve the valuation of matters material to the financial statements (e.g. the
present value of obligations) and the valuation involves a significant degree of subjectivity (e.g. length of service), the
self-review threat created cannot be reduced to an acceptable level of the application of any safeguard. Accordingly:
■ such valuation services should not be provided; or
■ the firm should withdraw from the financial statement audit engagement.
If the net liability was not material to the financial statements the self-review threat may be reduced to an acceptable
level by the application of safeguards such as:
■ involving an additional professional accountant who was not a member of the audit team to review the work done
by the actuary;
■ confirming with the audit client their understanding of the underlying assumptions of the valuation and the
methodology to be used and obtaining approval for their use;
■ obtaining the audit client‘s acknowledgement of responsibility for the results of the work performed by the firm; and
■ making arrangements so that the partner providing the actuarial services does not participate in the audit
engagement.

正确答案：

(a) Simply defined, a project is ‘activity that has a start, a middle and an end and consumes resources’ – it is therefore a discrete
activity aimed at achieving a specific objective or range of objectives. Graham is intent on using the ‘environmentally aware’
project to achieve a specific objective – the attainment of the international environmental standard. He is, however, aware
that there are a number of internal stakeholders inside the company who question the significance of such a project.
Externally, he can point to significant stakeholders, including customers and government who are looking for CFS to become
more environmentally aware. The project is likely to have strategic and not simply operational or administrative significance
and the person appointed into the role of project manager, ideally, should have both the traditional skills associated with
project management plus those of strategic management. Grundy and Brown list the traditional project management
techniques as:

Clearly, the project manager must have the technical project management skills, being able to manage the project through its
life cycle, which involves defining the project in terms of project objectives and scope as defined by time, cost and quality.
Planning the project in terms of breaking the overall project down into separate activities, estimating the resources required
and linking activities to resources in terms of time and priorities. Implementing the plan, including reviewing the progress in
meeting time and cost objectives and taking corrective action where and when necessary. Finally, reviewing the outcomes of
the project in terms of what was delivered to the customer and the extent to which client expectations were met.
The strategic nature of the project means that the project manager must have significant leadership skills, not only of the
project team, who are likely to come from different functions and parts of the company, but also influential stakeholders inside
and outside the company. This implies they should have good ‘political’ and communication skills as the project is of strategic
significance to the company. The ability to show how this particular project fits with the overall strategy of the firm is
important. The project is an important part in the achievement of the company strategy and in CFS’s case may help it
differentiate itself from its competitors. However, the project manager must recognise that there will be resistance from existing
managers reluctant to see resources committed to projects outside of the traditional value chain of the company. Certainly,
the project manager for the ‘environmentally aware’ project will themselves need to be aware of the external environmental
pressures prompting the firm to set itself specific environmental objectives and be able to link into supportive networks and
alliances. Finally, Grundy and Brown argue that the project manager will be the key to reviewing and learning from the project,
assessing whether defined objectives were achieved, the effectiveness or otherwise of the implementation process and how
key stakeholders were managed. The danger is that projects are seen as ‘one-off’ rather than contributing to the knowledge
and learning of the organisation. There may be a significant ‘learning curve’ that the firm has to go down and look tocontinuously improve its project management process.