江苏省考生想知道的ACCA国际会计师考试的几种题型

正确答案：
(b) Recruitment service
IFAC’s Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants does not prohibit firms from offering a recruitment service to client
companies. However several ethical problems could arise if the service were offered. The severity of these problems would
depend on the exact nature of the service provided, and the role of the person recruited into the client’s organisation.
Specific ethical threats could include:
Self-interest – clearly the motive for Becker & Co to offer this service is to generate income from audit clients, thereby creating
a financial self-interest threat. The amount received for the recruitment service depends on the magnitude of the salary of the
person employed. The more senior the person recruited, the higher their salary is likely to be, and therefore the higher the
fee to be paid to Becker & Co.
In addition, the firm could be tempted to advise positively on the recruitment of an individual merely to receive the relevant
recruitment fee, without properly considering the suitability of the person for the role.
Familiarity – when performing the audit, the auditors may be less likely to criticise or challenge the work performed by a
person they helped to recruit, as any significant problems discovered may make the recruitment appear ill-advised.
Management involvement – there is also a threat that the audit firm could be perceived to be making management decisions
by selecting employees. The firm could offer services such as reviewing the professional qualifications of a number of
applicants, and providing advice on the applicant’s suitability for the post. In addition the firm could draw up a shortlist of
candidates for interview, using criteria specified by the client. However in all cases, the final decision as to whom to hire must
be made by the client, as the audit firm should not make, or be perceived to be making, management decisions.
The threats discussed above would increase in significance if the recruitee took on a role in key management pertaining to
the finance function, such as finance director or financial controller. The threats would be less severe if the audit firm advised
on the recruitment of a junior member of the client’s finance function.
If these threats could not be reduced to a level less than clearly insignificant, then the recruitment service should not be
offered.
Commercial evaluation
The firm should consider whether there is likely to be much demand for the potential service before developing such a
resource. Some form. of market research is essential.
Offering this type of service represents a significant departure from normal audit services. The firm should consider whether
there is sufficient knowledge and expertise to offer a recruitment service. Ingrid Sharapova seems to have some experience,
but her skills may be out of date, and may not be specifically relevant to the recruitment of finance professionals. It may be
that considerable training and possibly the attainment of a new professional qualification relevant to recruitment may be
necessary for a credible service to be offered to clients.
If the recruitment service proved successful, then Ingrid could be faced with too much work as she is the only person with
relevant experience, and has no one to delegate to. If the firm decides to offer this service, then one other person should
receive appropriate training, to cover for Ingrid’s holidays and any sick leave, and to provide someone for Ingrid to delegate
to. The financial cost of such training should be considered.
Finally, Becker & Co should consider the potential damage to the firm’s reputation if the service offered is not of a high quality.
If the partners decide to pursue this business opportunity, they may wish to consider setting it up as a separate entity, so that
if the business fails or its reputation is questioned, the damage to Becker & Co would be minimised.

正确答案：
(d) (i) The main reason why it may not be possible to provide a high level of assurance is that the KPIs are not defined
precisely:
– The value of donated pharmaceutical products is compared to revenue to provide a percentage. However, it will be
difficult to accurately value the donated products – are they valued at cost, or at sales price? Are delivery costs
included in the valuation? The intrinsic value may be lower than sales value as Sci-Tech Co may decide to donate
products which are not useful or relevant to the charities they are donated to.
– The value of ‘cost of involvement with local charities’ is also not defined. If the donations are purely cash, then it
should be easy to verify donations using normal audit procedures to verify cash payments. However, the
‘involvement with local charities’ is not defined and will be difficult to quantify as a percentage of revenue. For
example, involvement may include:
? Time spent by Sci-Tech Co employees at local charity events
? Education and training provided to members of the local community in health care matters
– Number of serious accidents is also difficult to quantify as what constitutes a ‘serious’ accident is subjective. For
example, is an accident serious if it results in a hospitalisation of the employee? Or serious if it results in more than
five days absence from work while recovering?
In addition, the sufficiency of evidence available is doubtful, as such matters will not form. part of the accounting records
and thus there may be limited and possibly only unreliable sources of evidence available.
– Donated goods may not be separately recorded in inventory movement records. It may not be possible to
distinguish donated goods from sold or destroyed items.
– Unless time sheets are maintained, there is unlikely to be any detailed records of ‘involvement’ in local charities.

正确答案：
4 Overview:
References are used by most employers as a key part of their selection process, but mainly to verify facts about the candidate rather
than as an aid to decision making. The reference check is usually the last stage in the selection process and referees should be
contacted only after permission has been given by the applicant. Good referees are almost certain to know more about the
applicant than the selector and it would be foolish not to seek their advice or treat the reference check as a mere formality.
Part (a)
References provide further confidential information about the prospective employee. This may be of varying value, as the reliability
of all but the most factual information must be in question.
The purpose of a reference is to obtain straightforward factual information confirming the nature of the applicant’s previous job(s),
the period of employment, current pay and the circumstances for wishing to leave the present employment and to seek opinions
about the applicant’s personality and other attributes. However, allowance must be made for prejudice and charity.

正确答案：
(iii) The terms listed may be seen as representative of the dimensions of performance. The dimensions may be analysed into
results and determinants.
The results may be measured by focusing on financial performance and competitiveness. Financial performance may
be measured in terms of revenue and profit as shown in the data in the appendix of the question in respect of TSC. The
points system in part (a) of the answer shows which depots have achieved or exceeded the target set. In addition,
liquidity is another aspect of the measurement of financial performance. The points total in part (a) showed that
Leonardotown and Michaelangelotown depots appear to have the best current record in aspects of credit control.
15
Competitiveness may be measured in terms of sales growth but also in terms of market share, number of new
customers, etc. In the TSC statistics available in (a) we only have data for the current quarter. This shows that three of
the four depots listed have achieved increased revenue compared to target.
The determinants are the factors which may be seen to contribute to the achievement of the results. Quality, resource
utilisation, flexibility and innovation are cited by Fitzgerald and Moon as examples of factors that should contribute to
the achievement of the results in terms of financial performance and competitiveness. In TSC a main quality issue
appears to be customer care and service delivery. The statistics in the points table in part (a) of the answer show that
the Raphaeltown depot appears to have a major problem in this area. It has only achieved one point out of the six
available in this particular segment of the statistics.
Resource utilisation for TSC may be measured by the level of effective use of drivers and vehicles. To some extent, this
is highlighted by the statistics relating to customer care and service delivery. For example, late collection of consignments
from customers may be caused by a shortage of vehicles and/or drivers. Such shortages could be due to staff turnover,
sickness, etc or problems with vehicle maintenance.
Flexibility may be an issue. There may, for example, be a problem with vehicle availability. Possibly an increased focus
on sources for short-term sub-contracting of vehicles/collections/deliveries might help overcome delay problems.
The ‘target v actual points system’ may be seen as an example of innovation by the company. This gives a detailed set
of measures that should provide an incentive for improvement at all depots. The points system may illustrate the extent
of achievement/non-achievement of company strategies for success. For example TSC may have a customer care
commitment policy which identifies factors that should be achieved on a continuing basis. For example, timely collection
of consignments, misdirected consignments re-delivered at no extra charge, prompt responses to customer claims and
compensation for customers.