ACCA考试P7模拟练习：other assurance services

正确答案：
(a) Defining and explaining agency
Agency is defined in relation to a principal. A principal appoints an agent to act on his or her behalf. In the case of corporate
governance, the principal is a shareholder in a joint stock company and the agents (that have an agency relationship with
principals) are the directors. The directors remain accountable to the principals for the stewardship of their investment in the
company. In the case of Rosh, 60% of the shares are owned by shareholders external to the Rosh family and the board has
agency responsibility to those shareholders.
Criticisms of Rosh’s CG arrangements
The corporate governance arrangements at Rosh and Company are far from ideal. Five points can be made based on the
evidence in the case.
There are several issues associated with the non-executive directors (NEDs) at Rosh. It is doubtful whether two NEDs are
enough to bring sufficient scrutiny to the executive board. Some corporate governance codes require half of the board of larger
companies to be non-executive and Rosh would clearly be in breach of such a requirement. Perhaps of equal concern, there
is significant doubt over the independence of the current NEDs as they were recruited from retired executive members of the
board and presumably have relationships with existing executives going back many years. Some corporate governance codes
(such as the UK Combined Code) specify that NEDs should not have worked for the company within the last five years. Again,
Rosh would be in breach of this provision.
Succession planning for senior positions in the company seems to be based on Rosh family membership rather than any
meritocratic approach to appointments (there doesn’t appear to be a nominations committee). Whilst this may have been
acceptable before the flotation when the Rosh family owned all of the shares, the flotation introduced an important need for
external scrutiny of this arrangement. The lack of NED independence makes this difficult.
There is a poor (very narrow) diversity of backgrounds among board members. Whilst diversity can bring increased conflict,
it is generally assumed that it can also stimulate discussion and debate that is often helpful.
There is a somewhat entrenched executive board and Mary is the first new appointment to the board in many years (and is
the first woman). Whilst experience is very important on a board, the appointment of new members, in addition to seeding
the board with talent for the future, can also bring fresh ideas and helpful scrutiny of existing policies.
There is no discussion of strategy and there is evidence of a lack of preparation of strategic notes to the board. The assumption
seems to be that the ‘best’ option is obvious and so there is no need for discussion and debate. Procedures for preparing
briefing notes on strategy for board meetings appear to be absent. Most corporate governance codes place the discussion and
setting of strategy as a high priority for boards and Rosh would be in breach of such a provision.
There is no evidence of training for Mary to facilitate her introduction into the organisation and its systems. Thorough training
of new members and ongoing professional development of existing members is an important component of good governance.

正确答案：
(a) The weaknesses of traditional budgeting processes include the following:
– many commentators, including Hope and Fraser, contend that budgets prepared under traditional processes add little
value and require far too much valuable management time which would be better spent elsewhere.
– too heavy a reliance on the ‘agreed’ budget has an adverse impact on management behaviour which can become
dysfunctional having regard to the objectives of the organisation as a whole.
– the use of budgeting as base for communicating corporate goals, setting objectives, continuous improvement, etc is seen
as contrary to the original purpose of budgeting as a financial control mechanism.
– most budgets are not based on a rational causal model of resource consumption but are often the result of protracted
internal bargaining processes.
– conformance to budget is not seen as compatible with a drive towards continuous improvement.
– budgeting has an insufficient external focus.

正确答案：
(iii) Problems with delegation are threefold. Firstly, reluctance from managers who are afraid of losing control, who fear that subordinates may carry out the work badly and who are resentful of subordinate development. Secondly, there is the problem of lack of confidence, lack of self confidence in the manager and often a lack of confidence in the subordinates.Thirdly, there are problems of trust; that is the amount of trust the superior has in the subordinate and the trust that the subordinate feels the superior has in him or her.

正确答案：
(c) Extent of reliance on analytical procedures as audit evidence
Tutorial note: In the requirement ‘… reliance … as audit evidence’ is a direction to consider only substantive analytical
procedures. Answer points concerning planning and review stages were not asked for and earn no marks.
■ Although there is likely to be less reliance on analytical procedures than if this had been an existing audit client, the fact
that this is a new assignment does not preclude placing some reliance on such procedures.
■ Analytical procedures will not be relied on in respect of material items that require 100% testing. For example, additions
to property is likely to represent a very small number of transactions.
■ Analytical procedures alone may provide sufficient audit evidence on line items that are not individually material. For
example, inventory (less than 1/2% revenue and less than 1% total assets) may be shown to be materially correctly
stated through analytical procedures on consumable stores (i.e. fuel, lubricants, materials for servicing vehicles etc).
■ Substantive analytical procedures are best suited to large volume transactions (e.g. revenue, materials expense, staff
costs). If controls over the completeness, accuracy and validity of recording transactions in these areas are effective then
substantive analytical procedures showing that there are no unexpected fluctuations should reduce the need for
substantive detailed tests.
■ The extent of planned use will be dependent on the relationships expected between variables. (e.g. between items of
financial information and between items of financial and non-financial information). For example, if material costs rise
due to an increase in the level of business then a commensurate increase in revenue and staff costs might be expected
also.
■ ‘Proofs in total’ (or reasonableness tests) provide substantive evidence that income statement items are not materially
misstated. In the case of Yates these might be applied to staff costs (number of employees in each category ×
wage/salary rates, grossed up for social security, etc) and finance expense (interest rate × average monthly overdraft
balance).
■ However, such tests may have limited application, if any, if the population is not homogenous and cannot be subdivided.
For example, all the categories of non-current asset have a wide range of useful life. Therefore it would be
difficult/meaningless to apply an ‘average’ depreciation rate to all assets in the class to substantiate the total depreciation
expense for the year. (Although it might highlight a risk of potential over or understatement requiring further
investigation.)
■ Substantive analytical procedures are more likely to be used if there is relevant information available that is being used
by Yates. For example, as fuel costs will be significant, Yates may monitor consumption (e.g. miles per gallon (MPG)).
■ Analytical procedures may supplement alternative procedures that provide evidence regarding the same assertion. For
example, the review of after-date payments to confirm the completeness of trade payables may be supplemented by
calculations of average payment period on a monthly basis.
Tutorial note: Credit will be given for other relevant points drawn from the scenario. For example, the restructuring during
the previous year is likely to have caused fluctuations that may result in less reliance being placed on analytical procedures.