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)
(a) State the FIVE threats contained within ACCA’s Code of Ethics and Conduct and for each threat list ONE example of a circumstance that may create the threat. (5 marks)
(b) You are the audit manager of Jones & Co and you are planning the audit of LV Fones Co, which has been an audit client for four years and specialises in manufacturing luxury mobile phones.
During the planning stage of the audit you have obtained the following information. The employees of LV Fones Co are entitled to purchase mobile phones at a discount of 10%. The audit team has in previous years been offered the same level of staff discount.
During the year the fi nancial controller of LV Fones was ill and hence unable to work. The company had no spare staff able to fulfi l the role and hence a qualifi ed audit senior of Jones & Co was seconded to the client for three months. The audit partner has recommended that the audit senior work on the audit as he has good knowledge of the client. The fee income derived from LV Fones was boosted by this engagement and along with the audit and tax fee, now accounts for 16% of the fi rm’s total fees.
From a review of the correspondence fi les you note that the partner and the fi nance director have known each other socially for many years and in fact went on holiday together last summer with their families. As a result of this friendship the partner has not yet spoken to the client about the fee for last year’s audit, 20% of which is still outstanding.
Required:
(i) Explain the ethical threats which may affect the independence of Jones & Co’s audit of LV Fones Co; and (5 marks)
(ii) For each threat explain how it might be avoided. (5 marks)
(c) Describe the steps an audit fi rm should perform. prior to accepting a new audit engagement. (5 marks)
阅读下短文,回答 51~55 题:
根据中文提示,将对话中缺少的内容写在线上。这些句子必须符合英语表达习惯。打句
号的地方,用陈述句;打问号的地方,用疑问句。
提示:Mr.Harris是位国际商用机器公司推销员(salesman),他去银行办理储蓄户头。办
事员要他填几张表,询问他的姓名、地址、邮编、电话以及职业等,他都一一作了回答。
Clerk:__________51__________?,sir?
Harris:Yes,I'd like to open a savings account.
Clerk:Certainly,sir.We’11 have to fill out some forms.__________52__________?
Harris:It’s Harris,John Harris.
Clerk:How do you spell your last name,Mr.Harris?Harris:It’S H—A—R—R—I—S.
Clerk:And__________53__________ ?
Harris:2418 Greystone Road.
Clerk:Is that in Chicago?
Harris:Yes,that’S right.
Clerk:And your zip code?
Harris:60602.
Clerk:__________54__________,Mr.Harris?
Harris:364—9758.
Clerk:364—9758.And your job?
Harrfs:__________55__________·
Clerk:I see.What’s the name of your employer?
Harris:1 work for IBM.
Clerk:Fine.Just a minute,please.
第 51 题 请回答第51空:
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Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted
Shop Reviewers Online (SRO) was founded in 2010 by Amy Needham. She felt that many customers buying from online stores were misled by advertising and that too often, purchased products turned out to be unreliable, faulty or failed to meet the customers’ expectations. Amy believed that the online retail industry was increasingly acting unethically, caring only for profits at the expense of the needs and expectations of customers.
Consequently, she set up SRO to ‘provide an unbiased review of online stores to ensure the customer has all available information’. The company offers reviews of current online stores and provides direct links for customers to shop at the stores featured on its site. The reviews include price comparisons, provided by SRO, as well as general reviews provided by registered users of the site. The company has two main revenue streams. The first is advertising revenue from online stores who place advertisements on the SRO site. The second revenue stream is commission from sales by online stores to customers who have clicked on the sponsored links provided on the SRO website. This commission is only paid by stores who have entered into such a commission arrangement with SRO.
SRO relies upon its website being available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For this reason it has backup servers running concurrently with the main servers on which data is processed and stored. The servers are directly linked so that any update to the main servers automatically occurs on the backup. The servers are all housed in the same computer centre in the company head office. The computer centre has enhanced its security by implementing a fingerprint recognition system for controlling access to the site. However, as the majority of staff at headquarters are IT personnel, and often temporary staff are hired to cover absentees, the fingerprint recognition system is not comprehensive and, to save time, is often bypassed. Similarly, to save time needed to set up new permanent staff with passwords to access the company’s systems, a general ‘administrator’ user has been created, with the password ‘password’. Many temporary staff access the system in this way.
SRO has an intelligent software application which constantly searches the internet for product price changes, uploading these into the reviews of the online store in question. Sometimes, however, there have been problems. Usually this is when the application has not recognised an outdated page and has replaced the correct latest price with an old price found on the outdated page. Furthermore, this intelligent software application needs permanent continual access to the internet, and SRO has identified a problem with its firewall which has prevented the software application from sometimes updating the internal systems. For this reason, it has removed the firewall protection to help ensure that the correct up-to-date prices of all online stores are shown on the website.
SRO rarely generates other elements of reviews (such as product experience), leaving this to registered users of the site. However, it will, occasionally, submit its own review to help boost a store which pays a higher commission rate than its competitors. SRO is always honest in its reviews, but the more reviews a store has, the higher up the search list it appears, when a customer searches for a specific product.
Registered users can submit as many reviews as they wish. Unregistered users may also submit reviews, which will be published under the name ‘anonymous’, but these reviewers will be unable to comment on the reviews of others. SRO checks reviews for appropriate content, but does not contact the store to verify the accuracy of the review.
SRO is about to undertake an audit of the adequacy of its general and application IT controls. In addition, SRO is currently undertaking an internal ethical governance audit, which has identified two main areas of concern:
(1) Commercial conflicts of interest
As mentioned earlier, SRO’s business objective is to ‘provide an unbiased review of online stores to ensure the customer has all available information’. However, the audit has revealed that both SRO’s revenue streams may cause an ethical dilemma with regards to this objective.
(2) Company offices
SRO has little need for traditional offices, as it does not have a direct customer-facing role. It mainly requires IT technicians to support its automated services. The company has carried out research which suggests that the IT skills it requires could be sourced at a much lower rate overseas. It is considering relocation to one such country. This country has low rates of corporation tax and cheaper labour costs. However, the country itself is poorly regulated and does not have legislation concerning the quality of information systems or the security of data contained within them, particularly relating to personal data. The culture of the country is such that accepting unauthorised payments for services is also not unusual. Whilst SRO does not condone this in its code of conduct, it is aware that such issues exist in the country under consideration.
Required:
(a) Evaluate the adequacy of the general and application controls in place within SRO, with respect to its information technology and information systems. Suggest any improvements you consider to be necessary. (15 marks)
(b) Assess the corporate governance and ethical dilemmas identified by SRO in its possible relocation to the foreign country and discuss the implications of these on organisational mission, purpose and strategy. (10 marks)
(c) With specific reference to Hugh Co, discuss the objective of a review engagement and contrast the level of
assurance provided with that provided in an audit of financial statements. (6 marks)
两个对象值相同(x.equals(y) == true),但却可有不同的hash code,这句话对不对