(b) Describe the audit work to be performed in respect of the carrying amount of the following items in the
balance sheet of GVF as at 30 September 2005:
(i) goat herd; (4 marks)
(b) Describe the audit work to be performed in respect of the carrying amount of the following items in the
balance sheet of GVF as at 30 September 2005:
(i) goat herd; (4 marks)
(ii) equipment used in the manufacture of Bachas Blue; and (4 marks)
(b) Chatam, a limited liability company, is a long-standing client. One of its subsidiaries, Ayora, has made losses
for several years. At your firm’s request, Chatam’s management has made a written representation that goodwill
arising on the acquisition of Ayora is not impaired. Your firm’s auditor’s report on the consolidated financial
statements of Chatam for the year ended 31 March 2005 is unmodified. Your firm’s auditor’s report on the
financial statements of Ayora is similarly unmodified. Chatam’s Chief Executive, Charles Barrington, is due to
retire in 2006 when his share options mature. (6 marks)
Required:
Comment on the ethical and other professional issues raised by each of the above matters and their implications,
if any, for the continuation of each assignment.
NOTE: The mark allocation is shown against each of the three issues.
2 Plaza, a limited liability company, is a major food retailer. Further to the success of its national supermarkets in the
late 1990s it has extended its operations throughout Europe and most recently to Asia, where it is expanding rapidly.
You are a manager in Andando, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants. You have been approached by Duncan
Seymour, the chief finance officer of Plaza, to advise on a bid that Plaza is proposing to make for the purchase of
MCM. You have ascertained the following from a briefing note received from Duncan.
MCM provides training in management, communications and marketing to a wide range of corporate clients, including
multi-nationals. The ‘MCM’ name is well regarded in its areas of expertise. MCM is currently wholly-owned by
Frontiers, an international publisher of textbooks, whose shares are quoted on a recognised stock exchange. MCM
has a National and an International business.
The National business comprises 11 training centres. The audited financial statements show revenue of
$12·5 million and profit before taxation of $1·3 million for this geographic segment for the year to 31 December
2004. Most of the National business’s premises are owned or held on long leases. Trainers in the National business
are mainly full-time employees.
The International business has five training centres in Europe and Asia. For these segments, revenue amounted to
$6·3 million and profit before tax $2·4 million for the year to 31 December 2004. Most of the International business’s
premises are held on operating leases. International trade receivables at 31 December 2004 amounted to
$3·7 million. Although the International centres employ some full-time trainers, the majority of trainers provide their
services as freelance consultants.
Required:
(a) Define ‘due diligence’ and describe the nature and purpose of a due diligence review. (4 marks)
(c) Illustrate how:
(i) inquiry; and (4 marks)
(ii) Any increase or decrease in the group’s budgeted corporation tax liability for the year ending 30 June
2008 due to the restructuring on the assumption that trading losses will be used as efficiently as
possible. (8 marks)
(b) Historically, all owned premises have been measured at cost depreciated over 10 to 50 years. The management
board has decided to revalue these premises for the year ended 30 September 2005. At the balance sheet date
two properties had been revalued by a total of $1·7 million. Another 15 properties have since been revalued by
$5·4 million and there remain a further three properties which are expected to be revalued during 2006. A
revaluation surplus of $7·1 million has been credited to equity. (7 marks)
Required:
For each of the above issues:
(i) comment on the matters that you should consider; and
(ii) state the audit evidence that you should expect to find,
in undertaking your review of the audit working papers and financial statements of Albreda Co for the year ended
30 September 2005.
NOTE: The mark allocation is shown against each of the three issues.
(c) Explain the benefits of performance-related pay in rewarding directors and critically evaluate the implications
of the package offered to Choo Wang. (8 marks)
(b) ‘Strategic positioning’ is about the way that a company as a whole is placed in its environment and concerns its
‘fit’ with the factors in its environment.
With reference to the case as appropriate, explain how a code of ethics can be used as part of a company’s
overall strategic positioning. (7 marks)
2 Chen Products produces four manufactured products: Products 1, 2, 3 and 4. The company’s risk committee recently
met to discuss how the company might respond to a number of problems that have arisen with Product 2. After a
number of incidents in which Product 2 had failed whilst being used by customers, Chen Products had been presented
with compensation claims from customers injured and inconvenienced by the product failure. It was decided that the
risk committee should meet to discuss the options.
When the discussion of Product 2 began, committee chairman Anne Ricardo reminded her colleagues that, apart from
the compensation claims, Product 2 was a highly profitable product.
Chen’s risk management committee comprised four non-executive directors who each had different backgrounds and
areas of expertise. None of them had direct experience of Chen’s industry or products. It was noted that it was
common for them to disagree among themselves as to how risks should be managed and that in some situations,
each member proposed a quite different strategy to manage a given risk. This was the case when they discussed
which risk management strategy to adopt with regard to Product 2.
Required:
(a) Describe the typical roles of a risk management committee. (6 marks)
(c) Assess Mr Hogg’s belief that employing child labour is ‘always ethically wrong’ from deontological and
teleological (consequentialist) ethical perspectives. (9 marks)