2019年ACCA考试《专业会计师（专业阶段）》每日一练(2019-03-15)

正确答案：
(c) Fiduciary responsibility
Definition of ‘fiduciary responsibility’
A fiduciary responsibility is a duty of trust and care towards one or more constituencies. It describes direction of accountability
in that one party has a fiduciary duty to another. In terms of the case, the question refers to whose interests the directors of
the football club should act in. Traditionally, the fiduciary duty of directors in public companies is to act in the economic
interests of shareholders who invest in the company but are unable to manage the company directly. The case raises a number
of issues concerning broadening the fiduciary duties of the directors of the football club with regard to the building of the new
stadium, to other stakeholder groups.
The case for extending fiduciary responsibility
Although the primary fiduciary duty of directors in large public companies will be to shareholders, directors in businesses such
as the football club described in the case may have good reason to broaden their views on fiduciary responsibility. This would
involve taking into account, and acting in the interests of, the local wildlife centre, the residents, the school, the local
government authority and the fans. The stakeholders in the case are not in agreement on the outcome for the new stadium
and the club will need to privilege some stakeholders over others, which is a common situation whenever a proposal involving
multiple impacts is considered. The specific arguments for broadening the fiduciary duties in this case include the following:
Such an acceptance of claims made on the football club would clearly demonstrate that the club values the community of
which it considers itself a part.
It would help to maintain and manage its local reputation, which is important in progressing the stadium project.
To broaden the fiduciary responsibility in this case would be to an important part of the risk management strategy, especially
with regard to risks that could arise from the actions of local stakeholders.
It could be argued that there is a moral case for all organisations to include other stakeholders’ claims in their strategies as it
enfranchises and captures the views of those affected by an organisation’s policies and actions.

正确答案：
(ii) Principles-based approach
Advantages of a principles-based approach
The rigour with which governance systems are applied can be varied according to size, situation, stage of development
of business, etc. Organisations (in legal terms) have a choice to the extent to which they wish to comply, although they
will usually have to ‘comply or explain’. Explanations are more accepted by shareholders and stock markets for smaller
companies.
Obeying the spirit of the law is better than ‘box ticking’ (‘sort of business you are’ rather than ‘obeying rules’). Being
aware of overall responsibilities is more important than going through a compliance exercise merely to demonstrate
conformance.
Avoids the ‘regulation overload’ of rules based (and associated increased business costs). The costs of compliance have
been a cause of considerable concern in the United States.
Self-regulation (e.g. by Financial Services Authority in the UK) rather than legal control has proven itself to underpin
investor confidence in several jurisdictions and the mechanisms are self-tightening (quicker and cheaper than legislation)
if initial public offering (IPO) volumes fall or capital flows elsewhere.
Context of developing countries
Developing countries’ economies tend to be dominated by small and medium sized organisations (SMEs). It would be
very costly and probably futile, to attempt to burden small businesses with regulatory requirements comparable to larger
concerns.
Having the flexibility to ‘comply or explain’ allows for those seeking foreign equity to increase compliance whilst those
with different priorities can delay full compliance. In low-liquidity stock markets (such as those in some developing
countries) where share prices are not seen as strategically important for businesses, adopting a more flexible approach
might be a better use of management talent rather than ‘jumping through hoops’ to comply with legally-binding
constraints.
The state needs to have an enforcement mechanism in place to deal with non-compliance and this itself represents a
cost to taxpayers and the corporate sector. Developing countries may not have the full infrastructure in place to enable
compliance (auditors, pool of NEDs, professional accountants, internal auditors, etc) and a principles-based approach
goes some way to recognise this.

正确答案：

Audit reports

Palm Industries Co (Palm)

(i) A customer of Palm’s owing $350,000 at the year end has not made any post year-end payments as they are disputing the quality of goods received. No allowance for receivables has been made against this balance. As the balance is being disputed, there is a risk of incorrect valuation as some or all of the receivable balance is overstated, as it may not be paid.

This $350,000 receivables balance represents 1·2% (0·35/28·2m) of revenue, 6·3% (0·35/5·6m) of receivables and 7·3% (0·35/4·8m) of profit before tax; hence this is a material issue.

(ii) A procedure to adopt includes:

– Review whether any payments have subsequently been made by this customer since the audit fieldwork was completed.

– Discuss with management whether the issue of quality of goods sold to the customer has been resolved, or whether it is still in dispute.

– Review the latest customer correspondence with regards to an assessment of the likelihood of the customer making payment.

(iii) If management refuses to provide against this receivable, the audit report will need to be modified. As receivables are overstated and the error is material but not pervasive a qualified opinion would be necessary.

A basis for qualified opinion paragraph would be needed and would include an explanation of the material misstatement in relation to the valuation of receivables and the effect on the financial statements. The opinion paragraph would be qualified ‘except for’.

Ash Trading Co (Ash)

(i) Chestnut & Co was only appointed as auditors subsequent to Ash’s year end and hence did not attend the year-end inventory count. Therefore, they have not been able to gather sufficient and appropriate audit evidence with regards to the completeness and existence of inventory.

Inventory is a material amount as it represents 21·3% (0·51/2·4m) of profit before tax and 5% (0·51/10·1m) of revenue; hence this is a material issue.

(ii) A procedure to adopt includes:

– Review the internal audit reports of the inventory count to identify the level of adjustments to the records to assess the reasonableness of relying on the inventory records.

– Undertake a sample check of inventory in the warehouse and compare to the inventory records and then from inventory records to the warehouse, to assess the reasonableness of the inventory records maintained by Ash.

(iii) The auditors will need to modify the audit report as they are unable to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence in relation to inventory which is a material but not pervasive balance. Therefore a qualified opinion will be required.

A basis for qualified opinion paragraph will be required to explain the limitation in relation to the lack of evidence over inventory. The opinion paragraph will be qualified ‘except for’.