(b) Explain the meaning of Stephanie’s comment: ‘I would like to get risk awareness embedded in the culture

at the Southland factory.’ (5 marks)

4 Hogg Products Company (HPC), based in a developing country, was recently wholly acquired by American Overseas

Investments (AOI), a North American holding company. The new owners took the opportunity to completely review

HPC’s management, culture and systems. One of the first things that AOI questioned was HPC’s longstanding

corporate code of ethics.

The board of AOI said that it had a general code of ethics that HPC, as an AOI subsidiary, should adopt. Simon Hogg,

the chief executive of HPC, disagreed however, and explained why HPC should retain its existing code. He said that

HPC had adopted its code of ethics in its home country which was often criticised for its unethical business behaviour.

Some other companies in the country were criticised for their ‘sweat shop’ conditions. HPC’s adoption of its code of

ethics, however, meant that it could always obtain orders from European customers on the guarantee that products

were made ethically and in compliance with its own highly regarded code of ethics. Mr Hogg explained that HPC had

an outstanding ethical reputation both locally and internationally and that reputation could be threatened if it was

forced to replace its existing code of ethics with AOI’s more general code.

When Ed Tanner, a senior director from AOI’s head office, visited Mr Hogg after the acquisition, he was shown HPC’s

operation in action. Mr Hogg pointed out that unlike some other employers in the industry, HPC didn’t employ child

labour. Mr Hogg explained that although it was allowed by law in the country, it was forbidden by HPC’s code of

ethics. Mr Hogg also explained that in his view, employing child labour was always ethically wrong. Mr Tanner asked

whether the money that children earned by working in the relatively safe conditions at HPC was an important source

of income for their families. Mr Hogg said that the money was important to them but even so, it was still wrong to

employ children, as it was exploitative and interfered with their education. He also said that it would alienate the

European customers who bought from HPC partly on the basis of the terms of its code of ethics.

Required:

(a) Describe the purposes and typical contents of a corporate code of ethics. (9 marks)

(ii) Explain why the disclosure of voluntary information in annual reports can enhance the company’s

accountability to equity investors. (4 marks)

(ii) Identify the points that must be confirmed and any action necessary in order for capital treatment to

apply to the transaction. (4 marks)

(b) Provide the directors of Acrux Ltd with a detailed explanation of the maximum rate of tax that will be suffered

on both the distributed and non-distributed profits of the non-UK resident investee companies where:

(1) there is a double tax treaty between the UK and the country in which the individual companies are

resident; and

(2) there is no such double tax treaty.

Note: you are not required to explain the position of the overseas resident branches. (6 marks)

6 Discuss how developments in each of the following areas has affected the scope of the audit and the audit work

undertaken:

(a) fair value accounting; (6 marks)

2 Your firm was appointed as auditor to Indigo Co, an iron and steel corporation, in September 2005. You are the

manager in charge of the audit of the financial statements of Indigo, for the year ending 31 December 2005.

Indigo owns office buildings, a workshop and a substantial stockyard on land that was leased in 1995 for 25 years.

Day-to-day operations are managed by the chief accountant, purchasing manager and workshop supervisor who

report to the managing director.

All iron, steel and other metals are purchased for cash at ‘scrap’ prices determined by the purchasing manager. Scrap

metal is mostly high volume. A weighbridge at the entrance to the stockyard weighs trucks and vans before and after

the scrap metals that they carry are unloaded into the stockyard.

Two furnaces in the workshop melt down the salvageable scrap metal into blocks the size of small bricks that are then

stored in the workshop. These are sold on both credit and cash terms. The furnaces are now 10 years old and have

an estimated useful life of a further 15 years. However, the furnace linings are replaced every four years. An annual

provision is made for 25% of the estimated cost of the next relining. A by-product of the operation of the furnaces is

the production of ‘clinker’. Most of this is sold, for cash, for road surfacing but some is illegally dumped.

Indigo’s operations are subsidised by the local authority as their existence encourages recycling and means that there

is less dumping of metal items. Indigo receives a subsidy calculated at 15% of the market value of metals purchased,

as declared in a quarterly return. The return for the quarter to 31 December 2005 is due to be submitted on

21 January 2006.

Indigo maintains manual inventory records by metal and estimated quality. Indigo counted inventory at 30 November

2005 with the intention of ‘rolling-forward’ the purchasing manager’s valuation as at that date to the year-end

quantities per the manual records. However, you were not aware of this until you visited Indigo yesterday to plan

your year-end procedures.

During yesterday’s tour of Indigo’s premises you saw that:

(i) sheets of aluminium were strewn across fields adjacent to the stockyard after a storm blew them away;

(ii) much of the vast quantity of iron piled up in the stockyard is rusty;

(iii) piles of copper and brass, that can be distinguished with a simple acid test, have been mixed up.

The count sheets show that metal quantities have increased, on average, by a third since last year; the quantity of

aluminium, however, is shown to be three times more. There is no suitably qualified metallurgical expert to value

inventory in the region in which Indigo operates.

The chief accountant disappeared on 1 December, taking the cash book and cash from three days’ sales with him.

The cash book was last posted to the general ledger as at 31 October 2005. The managing director has made an

allegation of fraud against the chief accountant to the police.

The auditor’s report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2004 was unmodified.

Required:

(a) Describe the principal audit procedures to be carried out on the opening balances of the financial statements

of Indigo Co for the year ending 31 December 2005. (6 marks)

(b) continuous auditing; (5 marks)

(ii) Explain why Galileo is able to pay the inheritance tax due in instalments, state when the instalments are

due and identify any further issues relevant to Galileo relating to the payments. (3 marks)

(b) Using the information provided, state the financial statement risks arising and justify an appropriate audit

approach for Indigo Co for the year ending 31 December 2005. (14 marks)