1 The board of Worldwide Minerals (WM) was meeting for the last monthly meeting before the publication of the yearend

results. There were two points of discussion on the agenda. First was the discussion of the year-end results;

second was the crucial latest minerals reserves report.

WM is a large listed multinational company that deals with natural minerals that are extracted from the ground,

processed and sold to a wide range of industrial and construction companies. In order to maintain a consistent supply

of minerals into its principal markets, an essential part of WM’s business strategy is the seeking out of new sources

and the measurement of known reserves. Investment analysts have often pointed out that WM’s value rests principally

upon the accuracy of its reserve reports as these are the best indicators of future cash flows and earnings. In order to

support this key part of its strategy, WM has a large and well-funded geological survey department which, according

to the company website, contains ‘some of the world’s best geologists and minerals scientists’. In its investor relations

literature, the company claims that:

‘our experts search the earth for mineral reserves and once located, they are carefully measured so that the company

can always report on known reserves. This knowledge underpins market confidence and keeps our customers

supplied with the inventory they need. You can trust our reserve reports – our reputation depends on it!’

At the board meeting, the head of the geological survey department, Ranjana Tyler, reported that there was a problem

with the latest report because one of the major reserve figures had recently been found to be wrong. The mineral in

question, mallerite, was WM’s largest mineral in volume terms and Ranjana explained that the mallerite reserves in

a deep mine in a certain part of the world had been significantly overestimated. She explained that, based on the

interim minerals report, the stock market analysts were expecting WM to announce known mallerite reserves of

4·8 billion tonnes. The actual figure was closer to 2·4 billion tonnes. It was agreed that this difference was sufficient

to affect WM’s market value, despite the otherwise good results for the past year. Vanda Monroe, the finance director,

said that the share price reflects market confidence in future earnings. She said that an announcement of an incorrect

estimation like that for mallerite would cause a reduction in share value. More importantly for WM itself, however, it

could undermine confidence in the geological survey department. All agreed that as this was strategically important

for the company, it was a top priority to deal with this problem.

Ranjana explained how the situation had arisen. The major mallerite mine was in a country new to WM’s operations.

The WM engineer at the mine said it was difficult to deal with some local people because, according to the engineer,

‘they didn’t like to give us bad news’. The engineer explained that when the mine was found to be smaller than

originally thought, he was not told until it was too late to reduce the price paid for the mine. This was embarrassing

and it was agreed that it would affect market confidence in WM if it was made public.

The board discussed the options open to it. The chairman, who was also a qualified accountant, was Tim Blake. He

began by expressing serious concern about the overestimation and then invited the board to express views freely. Gary

Howells, the operations director, said that because disclosing the error to the market would be so damaging, it might

be best to keep it a secret and hope that new reserves can be found in the near future that will make up for the

shortfall. He said that it was unlikely that this concealment would be found out as shareholders trusted WM and they

had many years of good investor relations to draw on. Vanda Monroe, the finance director, reminded the board that

the company was bound to certain standards of truthfulness and transparency by its stock market listing. She pointed

out that they were constrained by codes of governance and ethics by the stock market and that colleagues should be

aware that WM would be in technical breach of these if the incorrect estimation was concealed from investors. Finally,

Martin Chan, the human resources director, said that the error should be disclosed to the investors because he would

not want to be deceived if he were an outside investor in the company. He argued that whatever the governance codes

said and whatever the cost in terms of reputation and market value, WM should admit its error and cope with

whatever consequences arose. The WM board contains three non-executive directors and their views were also

invited.

At the preliminary results presentation some time later, one analyst, Christina Gonzales, who had become aware of

the mallerite problem, asked about internal audit and control systems, and whether they were adequate in such a

reserve-sensitive industry. WM’s chairman, Tim Blake, said that he intended to write a letter to all investors and

analysts in the light of the mallerite problem which he hoped would address some of the issues that Miss Gonzales

had raised.

Required:

(a) Define ‘transparency’ and evaluate its importance as an underlying principle in corporate governance and in

relevant and reliable financial reporting. Your answer should refer to the case as appropriate. (10 marks)

5 Astrodome Sports Ltd was formed in December 2000 by seven engineers who comprise the board of directors of the

company. The seven engineers previously worked together for ‘Telstar’, a satellite navigation company.

In conjunction with one of the three largest construction companies within their country they constructed the ‘365

Sports Complex’ which has a roof that opens and uses revolutionary satellite technology to maintain grass surfaces

within the complex. The complex facilities, which are available for use on each day of the year, include two tennis

courts, a cricket pitch, an equestrian centre and six bowling greens. The tennis courts and cricket pitch are suitable

for use as venues for national competitions. The equestrian centre offers horse-riding lessons to the general public and

is also a suitable venue for show-jumping competitions. The equestrian centre and bowling greens have increased in

popularity as a consequence of regular television coverage of equestrian and bowling events.

In spite of the high standard of the grass surfaces within the sports complex, the directors are concerned by reduced

profit levels as a consequence of both falling revenues and increasing costs. The area in which the ‘365 Sports

Complex’ is located has high unemployment but is served by all public transport services.

The directors of Astrodome Sports Ltd have different views about the course of action that should be taken to provide

a strategy for the future improvement in the performance of the complex. Each director’s view is based on his/her

individual perception as to the interpretation of the information contained in the performance measurement system of

the complex. These are as follows:

Director

(a) ‘There is no point whatsoever in encouraging staff to focus on interaction with customers in efforts to create a

‘user friendly’ environment. What we need is to maintain the quality of our grass surfaces at all costs since that

is the distinguishing feature of our business.’

(b) ‘Buy more equipment which can be hired out to users of our facilities. This will improve our utilisation ratios

which will lead to increased profits.’

(c) ‘We should focus our attention on maximising the opening hours of our facilities. Everything else will take care

of itself.’

(d) ‘Recent analysis of customer feedback forms indicates that most of our customers are satisfied with the facilities.

In fact, the only complaints are from three customers – the LCA University which uses the cricket pitch for

matches, the National Youth Training Academy which held training sessions on the tennis courts, and a local

bowling team.’

(e) ‘We should reduce the buildings maintenance budget by 25% and spend the money on increased advertising of

our facilities which will surely attract more customers.’

(f) ‘We should hold back on our efforts to overcome the shortage of bowling equipment for hire. Recent rumours are

that the National Bowling Association is likely to offer large financial grants next year to sports complexes who

can show they have a demand for the sport but have deficiencies in availability of equipment.’

(g) ‘Why change our performance management system? Our current areas of focus provide us with all the

information we need to ensure that we remain a profitable and effective business.’

As management accountant of Astrodome Sports Ltd you have recently read an article which discussed the following

performance measurement problems:

(i) Tunnel vision

(ii) Sub-optimisation

(iii) Misinterpretation

(iv) Myopia

(v) Measure fixation

(vi) Misrepresentation

(vii) Gaming

(viii) Ossification.

Required:

(a) Explain FOUR of the above-mentioned performance measurement problems (i-viii) and discuss which of the

views of the directors (a-g) illustrate its application in each case. (12 marks)

(c) Identify and discuss the ethical and professional matters raised at the inventory count of LA Shots Co.

(6 marks)

(b) Explain how the non-payment of contributions and the change in the pension benefits should be treated in

the financial statements of Savage for the year ended 31 October 2005. (4 marks)

10 What would the company’s profit become after the correction of the above errors?

A $634,760

B $624,760

C $624,440

D $625,240

Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted

Perkin manufactures electronic components for export worldwide, from factories in Ceeland, for use in smartphones and hand held gaming devices. These two markets are supplied with similar components by two divisions, Phones Division (P) and Gaming Division (G). Each division has its own selling, purchasing, IT and research and development functions, but separate IT systems. Some manufacturing facilities, however, are shared between the two divisions.

Perkin’s corporate objective is to maximise shareholder wealth through innovation and continuous technological improvement in its products. The manufacturers of smartphones and gaming devices, who use Perkin’s components, update their products frequently and constantly compete with each other to launch models which are technically superior.

Perkin has a well-established incremental budgeting process. Divisional managers forecast sales volumes and costs months in advance of the budget year. These divisional budgets are then scrutinised by the main board, and revised significantly by them in line with targets they have set for the business. The finalised budgets are often approved after the start of the accounting year. Under pressure to deliver consistent returns to institutional shareholders, the board does not tolerate failure by either division to achieve the planned net profit for the year once the budget is approved. Last year’s results were poor compared to the annual budget. Divisional managers, who are appraised on the financial performance of their own division, have complained about the length of time that the budgeting process takes and that the performance of their divisions could have been better but was constrained by the budgets which were set for them.

In P Division, managers had failed to anticipate the high popularity of a new smartphone model incorporating a large screen designed for playing games, and had not made the necessary technical modifications to the division’s own components. This was due to the high costs of doing so, which had not been budgeted for. Based on the original sales forecast, P Division had already committed to manufacturing large quantities of the existing version of the component and so had to heavily discount these in order to achieve the planned sales volumes.

A critical material in the manufacture of Perkin’s products is silver, which is a commodity which changes materially in price according to worldwide supply and demand. During the year supplies of silver were reduced significantly for a short period of time and G Division paid high prices to ensure continued supply. Managers of G Division were unaware that P Division held large inventories of silver which they had purchased when the price was much lower.

Initially, G Division accurately forecasted demand for its components based on the previous years’ sales volumes plus the historic annual growth rate of 5%. However, overall sales volumes were much lower than budgeted. This was due to a fire at the factory of their main customer, which was then closed for part of the year. Reacting to this news, managers at G Division took action to reduce costs, including closing one of the three R&D facilities in the division.

However, when the customer’s factory reopened, G Division was unwilling to recruit extra staff to cope with increased demand; nor would P Division re-allocate shared manufacturing facilities to them, in case demand increased for its own products later in the year. As a result, Perkin lost the prestigious preferred supplier status from their main customer who was unhappy with G Division’s failure to effectively respond to the additional demand. The customer had been forced to purchase a more expensive, though technically superior, component from an alternative manufacturer.

The institutional shareholders’ representative, recently appointed to the board, has asked you as a performance management expert for your advice. ‘We need to know whether Perkin’s budgeting process is appropriate for the business, and how this contributed to last year’s poor performance’, she said, ‘and more importantly, how do we need to change the process to prevent this happening in the future, such as a move to beyond budgeting.’

Required:

(a) Evaluate the weaknesses in Perkin’s current budgeting system and whether it is suitable for the environment in which Perkin operates. (13 marks)

(b) Evaluate the impact on Perkin of moving to beyond budgeting. (12 marks)

(ii) The property of the former administrative centre of Tyre is owned by the company. Tyre had decided in the year

that the property was surplus to requirements and demolished the building on 10 June 2006. After demolition,

the company will have to carry out remedial environmental work, which is a legal requirement resulting from the

demolition. It was intended that the land would be sold after the remedial work had been carried out. However,

land prices are currently increasing in value and, therefore, the company has decided that it will not sell the land

immediately. Tyres uses the ‘cost model’ in IAS16 ‘Property, plant and equipment’ and has owned the property

for many years. (7 marks)

Required:

Advise the directors of Tyre on how to treat the above items in the financial statements for the year ended

31 May 2006.

(The mark allocation is shown against each of the above items)

(ii) Describe the claim of each of the four identified stakeholders. (4 marks)

(b) Examine how adopting a Six Sigma approach would help address the quality problems at UPC.

(10 marks)