Essays on Audits

Introduction

The SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) Act was enacted in 2002 by the Congress of U.S. As President Bush signed the Act, he characterized the law as the most far-reaching reformations of business practices in America business practices since the reign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." The motive of the legislation was to protect investors and the public in general, from fraudulent practices and accounting errors in business. The bill also aimed to better the corporate disclosures' accuracy. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the U.S. is in charge of the act, publishing rules and setting compliance deadlines on requirements. The Act ...

Suppliers

Suppliers are vital stakeholders of the organization that shapes the efficiency of its operation. Any organization that needs to promote its success needs to develop a good relationship with its suppliers (Krzyżanowska and Tkaczyk, 2014, pp. 157). Its intentions are to create value to its supplier who will reciprocate by delivering quality materials and products that meet the required standards. The move also involves favoring and supporting its suppliers all the times to help them achieve the company’s social compliance standards. Pacific Brands has taken measures to ensure continued supplier relationships, especially in China. It's China suppliers ...

Introduction

Earnings or Net Income is the single most important figure in a company’s financial statement for the average investor. Even a small fall in the reported earnings can result in the loss of millions of dollars in stock value and subjects company managements to scrutiny by investors and financial analysts. Corporate executives are under therefore under pressure to meet market expectations resulting in “earnings management”. Earnings manipulations can range from minor adjustments within the law and the accounting standards to the outright fraud of showing non-existing profits (Carruth, 2011). The Sarbanes- Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 was enacted ...

Abstract

The Madoff Securities scandal was one of the biggest Ponzi schemes to hit America. This essay would examine the Madoff scandal from an audit perspective since it was the complacency (or collusion) of the auditors that encouraged the perpetrator of this scam. While the scam that was pulled by Bernie Madoff, was both large and difficult to spot, its detection also helped expose a crucial flaw that existed in corporate America at the time. This was the lack of regulatory oversight in the Securities business. While one could lay the blame for this scandal on the Regulator, another important ...

Introduction

BMW Group is one of the most successful automotive companies in the world and is a considered a brand leader in the premium market segment in the United States. Despite competitive pressures within the market segments and among the low and mid-priced automotive, BMW’s vehicle volume sales continued to increase by 5.2% in 2015, thanks to the normalization of the global economy. Its revenues also increased by 14.6% and reached $92.2 billion while its net income reached $6.4 billion, a 10% increased from the previous year (BMW Group, 2016). As per location, Germany accounted for 42.6% of the ...

Introduction

Over the last few decades, there have been several changes in the roles of audit companies notably due to challenges that have affected the ethics and integrity of the institution of auditing. Traditionally, audit companies are mandated with the responsibility of analysing the financial systems, financial records as well as the compliance of companies’ financial reporting procedures with the specific national regulations. The effectiveness of audit companies in implementing these duties is extremely important in the public trust in business organizations around the world. Local and international investors rely on the accuracy of audit reports produced by audit companies ...

Background

Recently, Apple Inc instituted few changes in the Company’s Code of Conduct, particularly in China. It must be notified that more than 90 percent of their products are manufactured and assembled in China, which enforced the company to conduct operational audit and environmental audit in order to measure the tendency of deviation in production standards. The reasons for conducting the audits were the controversies related to labor mismanagement and environmental unfriendliness in China. According to Guglielmo (2013), Apple Inc announced that the inspection of facilities would be done by “Fair Labor Association” in order to evaluate the quality ...

<<Author>> <<Date>> Apple is a global corporation which is well known for its practices in sustainability and ethical behavior. However, this reputation was not built easily. Apple had to invent and re-invent their supplier conduct and sustainability practices over the years to gain this reputation. Today, Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct ensures that all suppliers create working conditions which are safe, respect workers and care for the environment (Apple, 2016). Their strict practices ensure that suppliers obey the rules, even if it is above local laws. Apple has a Supplier Responsibility Standards ...

Introduction

Health information management is a crucial field in the delivery of care in health care systems. Health information management is concerned with the acquisition, analysis, and protection of information that is required for the optimal provision of care (The American Health Information Management Association, 2016). Such information might include patient history, physical examination results, clinical information, laboratory results, results from radiological departments, and the treatment history among other information (The American Health Information Management Association, 2016). The workers in the health information management field are trained to possess different skills and an understanding of the processes in different fields ( ...

Abstract

Various methods of hazard analysis has been developed. Two of these processes are System-Theoretical Process Analysis (STPA) and Safety-Guided Design Process. This essay is going to focus on STPA and Safety-Guided Design Process. The first part will focus on STPA and it will the process of using STPA including the background behind it and how the technique is reflected in systems engineering. There is also a description of how the process is used to accommodate human controllers. The second part of the essay will focus on the Safety-Guided Design Process and how it is applied in industrial robotics. There ...

Section 1

HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule The Privacy Rule applies to protected health information (PHI) or health information that can help identify an individual, created or received by covered entities (CE), which include health plans, clearinghouses, Medicare prescription drug sponsors, and health care providers who electronically transmit information. However, the employees of these covered entities are excluded from this while the business associates of these covered entities are subject to some provisions of the rule. The use and disclosure of PHI by the covered entities requires written authorization by the individual as it is governed by the Privacy Rule ...

Ethics in Accounting Profession

Facts: In the current scenario, the main issue is the deviant workplace behavior which is caused by the several workplace professional and ethical problems. On the basis of research, professionals are behaving unethical due to the certain routines in the organization. In the past, the demand and supply of the individuals were under control. However, in the current scenario, the professionals of the highest quality are facing workload. Moreover, the accounting professionals are expecting an increase in their salaries, according to the work load.

Ethical Issues:

The ethical problem with accountants in relation to the deviant workplace behavior is that it ...

Health systems are often on the lookout for the best strategies that would help to strategize and improve the quality of service delivery. However, research, including (Mayberry, Nicewander, Qin, and Ballard, 2006) reveal that a huge percentage of their strategies become a failure. Such evidence depicts the challenging nature of successful improvements in healthcare. Nonetheless, there are numerous practices that have become increasingly efficient as health practitioners learn from each other’s successes and failures. This paper discusses such effective strategies ideal in the improvement of healthcare and the nursing practice environment as follows. The first strategic move is ...

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High-level Process Steps for Conducting Project Procurements

Obtaining Seller Responses Selecting a Seller The first step is to ensure that the short-listed bidders completely and correctly understand all the project requirements. The proper vehicle for this is the bidder conference (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2008) where all information will be imparted and questions answered. The client would then have to prepare to respond to proposals as they come in. It needs to come up with proposal evaluation techniques. It has to have a clear idea on the reasonable range of pricing by making its own independent estimates from ...

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The ABC Healthcare company is facing a great deal of challenges. The regulatory environment has become more restrictive, the stakeholders are demanding more flexible options and access to the systems; yet there are worms and viruses that are becoming extremely damaging as well. Throughout this case study, we will analyze five various issues. The first issue we will discuss is the technical and security recommendations which would protect both internal and external aspects for the overall network. The second issue is to understand the legal compliance of such components as system monitoring, logging in and auditing. The third issue ...

2A. Appraising Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Quantitative Study One source of bias during data collection is the use of self-report data (Polit & Beck 2012). Chivers et al. (2001) obtained data through the SF-36 and Beck depression inventory which required the patients to answer questionnaires. If they failed to give accurate answers, it would have affected the validity of the findings. The study design also allowed patients to receive other clinically appropriate treatments that were beyond the study protocol (Chivers et al. 2001). Additional treatments are confounding variables but their influence on the study outcomes was not estimated in the statistical analysis. This reduces confidence in ...

INTERNAL AUDIT AND FINANCIAL CONTROLS

Internal Audit and Financial Controls It is the ethical and professional responsibility of the auditing firm to maintain the high level of assurance and maintain an acceptable level of objectivity and independence as per the applicable codes of the auditing and assurance. Therefore, during or before performing audits, internal and external, the auditors must avoid any threat towards their independence and objectivity. However, in most of the cases, the auditors reduce the level of threats to assure that their reviews are objective and free from bias. ("Internal Audit's Relationship With External Audit") When the audit firm is providing the ...

The professional standards i.e. International Ethics Standard Board for Accounting (IESBA) enables a company’s auditors to provide tax services and retain their independence. The standards give permission to audit firms to provide non-audit services if the provision of services does not conflict with the independence needs of auditors. The non-audit services are known as permissible non-audit services ranging from professional advice related to transactions, tax services, and advisory services regarding business activities. The tax services include assistance related to tax return preparation, tax calculations to prepare transactions, and planning and resolution of tax disputes. Absence of conflict enables ...

(Tutor’s Name) (Assignment)

Executive Summary The disclosure of engagement partners and other participants in audits of public companies can add to the transparency and accountability of financial reporting significantly as it has been suggested by PCAOB and approved by SEC. With the implementation of this policy change, investors and other financial statement users can know the identity of the engagement partners and other participants in the audit. Therefore, investors can make well-informed investment decisions based on these disclosures. However, these disclosures have both direct and indirect costs that will be ultimately passed on to the company management and ...

Information System Security Plan for a Bank

Executive Summary The information security plan applies to AmeriBank, its auxiliaries, employees, information, system, processes, data, and networks collectively referred to as the Bank. AmeriBank is committed to protecting critical assets and securing information to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of the information, preventing damage to the network and systems that are vital to the bank’s business to ensure business continuity, and minimize risk to the businesses. This is achieved by implementing administrative, technical, and physical controls such as information security policies, software, and hardware controls, which have to be implemented, monitored, and improved upon to ...

The Madoff Securities case was a phenomenal one, in terms of the sheer size of the funds involved, the duration over which the scam took place as well as the stature of the victims affected. In most comparable schemes, the victims are usually those who have a very limited understanding of financial products and such schemes mostly do not last very long. This paper will review the case by determining the regulatory oversight in place at the time of the scandal and reasons why this scheme was not discovered as well as delve into other aspects of the case.

Regulatory Oversight of the SEC

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Introduction

The outcome of the treatment process in health facilities is dependent on several factors among which is the safety of the facility. There is a need to ensure that all the systems and facilities in the health facilities are safe to enhance the treatment procedures, services delivered and the quality of care. The principles behind the accreditation process are very influential to achieving the status described above. The purpose of the accreditation process is to ensure that the health facilities can not only identify but also formulate resolutions for the problems identified. The accreditation process also aims to inspire ...

I am a new warden who has just been assigned to a closed-security. This facility has experienced an increase in the number of escapes and assaults on both inmates and staff. I have been assigned to rectify the situation. As the officer in charge, I will begin by setting priorities that will guide me through the resolution process. For this case, my priorities will be as follows:

Prevent the escape of inmates

Reduce the number of assaults among inmates Decrease the number of assaults on staff Provide education and counseling to inmates and staff to minimize future incidences. The growing number of assaults on ...

MGMT 581

Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability Executive summary: This paper is a descriptive analysis of Corporate social responsibility which has long been a significant part of organizational activities at Oracle. Over a span of time, company has achieved great heights owing to its internal ethical standards such as compliance, teamwork, integrity and corporate governance that have contributed greatly towards establishing a good relationship with primary stakeholders and third party clients. The paper also represents a comprehensive report on how the management at Oracle has taken every step towards maintaining quality by regular training and education. Apart from this, the paper also ...

(Q1.) Over the years, Oracle has continued to demonstrate high levels of ethical standards in dealing with its employees, partners, creditors, suppliers, and other pertinent stakeholders. As such, this is one of the factors that have steered the company to the heights of the Fortune 500 (in 2014, the company was ranked 82). Over the years, the company’s board of directors has continued to develop corporate governance, ethical standards that have made the firm responsible to its primary stakeholders. Since the company operates globally, its executive managers in conjunction with the branch managers have developed laws and ethical ...

Introduction

Auditing is one of the most important elements in any police department. Both the law enforcement and individual offices should always be held responsible and accountable for their own actions. Effective auditing procedures are very vital if all the policing departments are to achieve their set objectives and goals of legitimacy and lawfulness as required by the national policing authority (National Council, 2004). Lawfulness alludes to consistence with the formal prerequisites of the law, including statutes and court choices. Legitimacy alludes to the recognition that police behavior is both legal and reliable with open desires. Responsibility is acknowledged through ...

Abstract

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act changed the ethical nature of accounting for publicly traded companies. The Act requires new forms of ethical behavior from companies, such as creating and maintaining a code of conduct that all employees, even executives, must follow. It also requires that they honestly and accurately report financial reports and maintains that the executive officers of a company have the most responsibility in reporting and certifying that the information is correct. The Act also changes the auditor-client relationship by making auditing more independent of the client, establishing an auditing committee overseen by the SEC, and ensuring transparency. The ...

1.0 Abstract Stakeholders are of central importance to every business organization. The success of any business hinges on the relationship that it has with its stakeholders. Disclosure of quality financial reports is significant for the capacity of business organizations to build confidence with their key stakeholders. Corporate governance and the audit quality have attracted the interest of researchers to determine how they impact stakeholders. Additionally, the implementation of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) has impacted the direction of business organizations especially with regards to corporate governance. The question of whether the quality and extent of disclosure of financial information ...

Preventing Embezzlement: If You Make It Easy For People to Steal From You, They Will

Summary The aim of this assignment is to review the article “Preventing embezzlement: if you make it easy for people to steal from you, they will” written by Frank. W. Abagnale. The KPMG conducted a survey of 1000 top international firms in the United States and asked them to give ranking to the issues that hurt their organization most. The survey revealed embezzlement as number one crime that hurt organizations most.

Background

The overall paper discusses the prevention measures from fraud and advises organization the ways that can be used to detect fraud. The focus of the paper is on ...

Nowadays global production networks are vital for many large companies and lots of smaller enterprises in the developing countries. In the early 2000s, Apple took a strategic decision to outsource production abroad. Supply chain management, flexibility, and production speed are some of the factors that make production overseas effective and beneficial for Apple (Moyer, 2012). However, cooperating with a very large number of suppliers is not easy and there may be a lot of criticism that can harm company’s image. Therefore Apple respects foreign suppliers, but requires them to pay more attention to the conditions in which employees ...

We at Apple believe everyone carries social responsibility; we must do our part to ensure other’s receive fair treatment. That is why our company has implemented such powerful supplier policies. Not only are we committed to providing opportunities for our employees, we expect our business partners to share the same values. Apple’s code of conduct is among the strictest in the world, a trait that is not only because were one of the first businesses to begin focusing on human rights violations in third world countries. Apple maintains a large supply chain, with business being conducted in ...

Introduction

Today's business environment is dynamic. The rapid changes in technology specifically have posed challenges to businesses. Apple cannot be excluded from this cluster and most especially because it operates in the Information Technology and Electronic industry which evolves every waking moment. For that matter, Apple formulated a Supplier Code of Conduct in 2005 to act as a guideline of the relationship between Apple and its suppliers. Over time, Apple has made some changes to the code of conduct to cope with the changing times; socially, technologically, economically and politically. This paper lists the various changes that Apple has made ...

Information Technology Auditing

Information Technology Auditing

Question 1

Final Audit Report My final audit report would be written in a manner to ensure that it encompasses the critical aspect of Information Technology aspects of Westchester Hospital. The report will give a succinct insight into the IT infrastructure of the hospital by highlighting and categorizing the machines which have root accounts alongside the specific administrative privileges which are shared with other several system administrators. The report would further incorporate a comprehensive analysis of the general operations of the Westchester Hospital’s IT system by identifying the security concerns of the systems and the best measures ...

Apple was founded in 1976 and there were several important stages in the company’s history that brought the company acknowledgment around the world. Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad were state-of-the-art electronics products that had a massive impact on the development of electronics industry. Apple might not have been able to become so successful without setting up a reliable supplier chain. Apple shifted production from the USA to the emerging region of East and South Asia in the 1990s and in just 20 years 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and approximately 60 million other products ...

Apple Company has many suppliers; the suppliers of the company provide jobs to more than 1.6 million individuals in various countries. Each of the employees has the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Apple is devoted to making sure that the working environment in Apple’s chain of supply is safe. The suppliers sign a contract to pledge that in all their undertakings, they will work in accordance with the rules and regulations of their specific countries. Apple’s Suppliers Code of Conduct depicts the internationally recognized standards; this is to help in the advancement of social ...

Boeing Company is an American multinational defense and aerospace corporation founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's leading aerospace organization and the largest manufacturer of military aircraft and commercial jetliners combined (Sanga, 2015). Lockheed Martin is an American defense aerospace advanced securities and Security Company with international interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Company with Martin Marietta in 1995. It is among the largest companies in the defense, aerospace advanced technology, and security (Benusa et al., 2012). Operational management is an essential aspect of a company, and it needs ...

Reciprocity of Marketing & Culture

INTRODUCTION The growing interdependence of global markets has made a more compelling case for culture as an increasingly significant variable in marketing efforts. For one, products and services produced at a global scale find more diverse platforms, particularly across virtual media. The pace, scale and content of products and/or services are, moreover, making an increasing case for more standardized offerings across different marketing contexts. Typically, consumer behavior metrics – including, most notably, conventional market research and more innovative approaches as data analytics platforms and applications – are adopted in order to identify consumer behaviors and needs. This approach to consumer behavior ...

Part 1: Interpret trends and market development

Analysis of trends and developments (3 marks) The international market is incredibly diverse; this provides business managers with untapped potential and a big range of profitable opportunities in the market. However, this diversity may make international marketing operations quite complicated, requiring the coordination of a variety of processes to be successful. In most cases, the basic marketing principles apply to all markets around the world. The difference is that you need to be able to apply those principles in environments that could be significantly different to what you are used to dealing with. Many of the issues international marketers ...

Introduction

The Bhopal disaster is considered to be the deadliest event in the corporate history of the world. Due to the leakage of lethal gases out of the factory, there were around 4000 deaths within 72 hours, while the number surged to around 15,000 within few weeks. It has been estimated by that 200,000 people became permanently disabled due to this incident. This incident is a pure case of intense corporate negligence. This case caused a major foreign investment dispute between government of India and Union Carbide Corporation. This dispute arose from the notion that some companies have ...

Abstract

The question on the moral issues surrounding companies and their decision makers has been there for a long time. This has become even more critical given companies’ ever-increasing urge to outdo their competitors. It has consequently, led to the development of decision-making models that incorporate ethical values to describe processes that decision makers should follow when dealing with issues containing ethical dimensions. That, therefore, creates and maintains a corporate culture that is ethics-oriented. Many problems and solutions have been attributed to the corporate practices that constitute an organization’s culture. That definitely makes it an important determinant of the ...

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Introduction

InterContinental Hotel Brisbane made an initiative for indigenous workers in the creation of an exclusive unit which provide special arrangements and services. They even have their own hiring unit and room for such purpose. Other workers have reacted to this situation and have imputed racial discrimination. This case will be examined in the light of equal employment opportunity (EEO) and diversity.

Equal Employment Opportunity

There are three approaches one can take for equality and diversity: liberal, radical and diversity. In this situation, the approach is just liberal with the principle of positive action. This means only some assistance is ...

Management

Analysis of Abbott’s Citizenship Report This paper is devoted to the American company Abbott that is a well-known actor in the international pharmaceutical and related markets. Its diverse business is divided into four main directions: nutrition, medical devices, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. During the last seventeen years the company prepares the citizenship report that shows the company’s strategy, standards, goals and results. Let’s analyze the company’s report of 2014 in order to analyze the ethical standards, environmental impact and human resources policy of the company.

The citizenship report shows the company’s code of ethics that ...

called and held to account

Introduction

Traditional models of accountability, primarily those of elections and legislative scrutiny, are no longer sufficient in holding governments accountable. While Emy and Hughes (1988) argue that accountability dilemmas have been long standing within ministerial government, they see accountability failures as an indication of mechanisms corrupted by political interest. The rise of new social movements is a strong indication of the collective desire of citizens to interrupt the “chain of accountability”. The desire to influence political decision makers is a reflection of a growing assumption that the democratic deficit facing most western governments requires experiments ...

Impacts of Outsourcing Internal Audit Fuction Author NameInstitution Name

Abstract This research finds out the effects outsourcing internal audit and extent of external auditors’ dependence on the work done by the internal audit team. We explore if outsourcing the internal audit function affects reliability on internal audit job already done and the use of assistant’s position for internal audit. We determine if internal audit outsourcing, the role of internal audit in systems consulting, affects external auditors’ dependence on internal audit. Results show that involvement in consultancy activities relating to the financial reporting system affects the extent of reliance on the work of the internal audit. When internal ...

Introduction and Review of Company

Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, more commonly known as the brand Etisalat, is a multinational telecommunications company based in the United Arab Emirates. The company has been operational for 40 years and had operations in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company’s operations generated global revenue of $14.08 billion and profits of $44.9 billion in the year of 2015. Etisalat is the thirteenth largest mobile network provider in the world, providing a customer base of over 160 million people with telecommunication services. The company provides internet and mobile services in eighteen countries in three different continents. Etisalat is the ...

Abstract

Total quality management is an approach steeped in scientific management. It involves an attempt to cut down on defects and meet what consumers require of a firm. TQM is based on the formulation of a system to monitor and control affairs and set and meet quality targets through a generalist framework. This is done through several approaches and systems including Six Sigma, Toyota Production System and ISO-9001. This paper focuses on ISO-9001. It is an accreditation system that is utilized by registering with a global monitoring system that is applied over an extended period of usually 6 months. ISO-9001 ...

Question 1

It is impossible for the external auditor to audit and investigate each and every transaction of the business because of the number of transactions. Therefore, to provide a reasonable assurance, the auditor sets, a sampling size according to the standards of auditing and his professional knowledge to reduce the number of testing. This reduction in the number of testing does not affect the overall view of the audit because all the important and risky areas are covered in the sample size set by the auditor at the planning stage of the audit. The main advantage of sampling at the ...

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1. Background The arrival of new technologies as helped improve many aspects of life. For example, License Plate Recognition is a modern technology that has helped improve mobility and safety in transportation (Rashid, Aibinu, Rahman, Suhaimi and Yunis, 2012). Many car parks have resulted to the use of technology to help in the logistics of operating a car park. Rashid et al., (2012) argue that automatic parking systems are progressive because in addition to improving logistics, they also increase the convenience of public parking, eliminate the hassles of fee collection and also enhance the security, especially when the car ...

Cloud technology has gained wide acceptance across multiple industries and is often touted as the future way of doing business. The company in consideration here- Better Payments Incorporated is a multinational payments organization that provides electronic payment cards to its customers. The company’s CIO has been entrusted with the immediate goals of reducing cost, increasing security and driving a technology enabled geographical expansion. This case study analysis paper will look into the ways and means for the company to achieve its goals through the adoption of cloud technology. The roadmap for the CIO to help the company achieve ...

Big Data is a huge amount of data that is put together and checked to help companies make better decisions. Big Data is becoming the basis of rivalry for businesses, improving production and forming substantial worth for the country’s economics by eliminating leftover and growing the worth of goods. All businesses need to pay attention to Big Data because it has the potential to create value in competition. Reputable competitors and new entrants will leverage data-driven strategies to innovate. Big Data will help to create new growth opportunities and new categories of companies that aggregate and analyze industry ...