天津市考生：ACCA考试成绩有效期是多久？

正确答案：
(b) Quality costs may be monitored by measuring costs of non-conformance and costs of conformance.
Costs of non-conformance occur when the product fails to reach the design quality standards. Such costs may be subdivided
into internal failure costs and external failure costs.
Internal failure costs occur when the failure is detected before the transfer of the product to the customer.
External failure costs occur when the failure to reach the required standards is not detected until after the product has been
transferred to the customer.
Costs of conformance are those incurred in reducing or eliminating the costs of non-conformance. Such costs may be
subdivided into appraisal costs and prevention costs.
Appraisal costs are those associated with the evaluation of items such as purchased material and services in order to ensure
that they conform. to the agreed specification.
Prevention costs are those associated with the implementation of a quality improvement programme. Such costs are planned
in advance and their implementation should lead to continuous improvement.
Examples of quality costs relevant to Division C may include:
Internal failure costs: cost of materials scrapped due to poor receipt and storage procedures or losses of CC output due to poor
processing routines.
External failure costs: cost of quality problems with batch of CC not detected until it has reached Division B. This may require
free replacement of the batch and compensation for loss of output by Division B.
Appraisal costs: evaluation of purchased material and services in relation to the manufacture of CC to ensure that it conforms
to the agreed specification; e.g. inspection and testing before use.
Prevention costs: the cost of implementation of staff training and the costs of equipment testing to ensure that it conforms to
the specification standards required for the production of CC.
(Alternative relevant examples would be accepted)

正确答案：
(b) (i) The directors of GWCC might consider any of the following specific actions in order to improve the return on the
investment:
– Attempt to raise the selling price of the Mighty Ben cake to Superstores plc. Much will depend on the nature of the
relationship in terms of mutuality of trust and co-operation between the parties. If Superstores plc are insistent on
a launch price of ￡20·25 and a mark-up of 35% on its purchase price from GWCC then this is likely to be
unsuccessful.
– Attempt to reduce the material losses in the first 600 batches of production via improved process control.
– Attempt to negotiate a retrospective rebate based on volumes of packaging purchased.
– Improve the rate of learning of the hand-skilled cake decorators via a more intensive training programme and/or
altering the flow of production.
– Undertake a thorough review of all variable overheads which have been absorbed on the basis of direct labour
hours. It might well be the case that labour is not the only ‘cost driver’ in which case variable overheads might be
overstated.
– Undertake a thorough review of all fixed overheads to ensure that they are specific to the production of the Mighty
Ben cake.
– Adopt a ‘value engineering’ approach in order to identify ‘non value added’ features/aspects of the product or
processes used to produce it. This would have to be done in conjunction with Superstores plc, but might end in a
‘win-win’ scenario.
– Ensure that all overhead expenditure will be incurred in the most ‘economic’ manner.

正确答案：
(b) Both companies are listed. The only difference will be in the availability of inheritance tax relief – specifically business property
relief (BPR). If Stuart and Rebecca jointly hold in excess of 50% of the share capital of a listed company, BPR will apply at
the rate of 50%. Otherwise, no BPR is available.
Stuart can only buy 1,005,000 (￡422,100/￡0·42) shares in Omikron plc. This represents a shareholding of 2·00%
(1,005,000/50,250,000). As the shares in Omikron plc are listed, a 2% holding will not qualify for BPR.
At the moment, both Stuart and Rebecca own 2,400,000 shares in Omega plc. Their shareholdings are amalgamated for
IHT purposes under the related property rules. With a joint holding of 48%, BPR is not available. A further 200,001 shares
will be required to attain a 50% holding. Assuming Stuart and Rebecca can buy these shares, they must then hold their 50%
interest in the company for the period of at least two years in order to ensure that BPR applies.
On the basis that Stuart is expected to survive for two to three years, he should therefore buy further shares in Omega plc in
order to take advantage of the BPR available.

正确答案：
(e) Control and sub-contractors
Specifically in regard to the maintenance of internal controls when working with sub-contractors, the prominent difficulties
are likely to be in the following areas:
Configuring and co-ordinating the many activities of sub-contractors so as to keep progress on track. This may involve taking
the different cultures of sub-contractor organisations into account.
Loss of direct control over activities as tasks are performed by people outside R&M’s direct employment and hence its
management structure.
Monitoring the quality of work produced by the sub-contractors. Monitoring costs will be incurred and any quality problems
will be potentially costly.
Budget ‘creep’ and cost control. Keeping control of budgets can be a problem in any large civil engineering project (such the
construction of the new Wembley Stadium in the UK) and problems are likely to be made worse when the principal contractor
does not have direct control over all activities.
Time limit over-runs. Many projects (again, such as the new Wembley Stadium, but others also) over-run significantly on time.
Tutorial note: only four difficulties need to be described.