X Company M has lost 25% of its revenue in the last three months due to bad debts. One of the receivables written off was from a long standing customer and the other three were from new customers. The management accountant has warned the sales team that the company cannot survive any more substantial bad debts.
Which of the following internal controls should be put in place to try and prevent further bad debts?
A US company enters into a five year borrowing with bank A at a floating rate of USD Libor plus 2%.
It simultaneously enters into an interest rate swap with bank B at 3.5% fixed against USD Libor plus 1%.
What is the hedged borrowing rate, taking the borrowing and swap into account?
Give your answer to 1 decimal place
H is a farmer. An outbreak of a contagious animal disease has just been detected near the region where the farm is located. This could potentially lead to substantial financial losses for H.
In these circumstances, which of the following responses by H is the most appropriate?
Which of the following statements concerning the role of the Audit Committee is correct?
K Ltd is an on-line travel agency specialising in budget package holidays to a small number of popular locations. The holidays that it sells are made up of a "package" of flights, hotel accommodation and food. K Ltd's Finance Director is concerned that the company's scope of operation is too narrow and wishes to diversify.
Identify TWO actions that K Ltd should take immediately.
A company is keen to avoid becoming a victim to malware. Which TWO of the following techniques would be valid responses to this threat?
ZZ is a data security company that is responsible for cyber security m a large shopping mall 21 uses Network Configuration Management (NCM) to assist it in meeting the various needs of the mall's user community.
Which THREE of the following are advantages provided by NCM?
Which of the following statements concerning the role of a non-executive director (NED) is correct?
B is a family run security company with a number of prestigious clients who rely on it to maintain online access to their CCTV and alarm systems and respond to any detected intrusions or malfunctions.
It designs and installs security systems for a number of UHNW (Ultra High Net Worth) individuals who may have several seasonal and city residences largely unoccupied for many months of the year.
B's reputation as 100% secure is crucial to its on-going success in this very specialised marketplace.
Select THREE factors which should be given prominence in B's fraud risk management strategy.
D has decided to invest in a new factory at a cost of $6,000,000. The discount rate of the project is 22% and the PV of tax shield is $80,000.
What is the IRR?
Give your answer to two decimal places.
The management of U is reviewing internal controls throughout the company. It has noted the following:-
1. In the trade receivables section, journal adjustments are made by the clerks, without any reference to their supervisor. Journal adjustments may relate to sales returns, discounts allowed, or transfers between accounts.
2. In the purchasing department, the purchasing manager selects and approves all suppliers, as they are the only person with sufficient experience to do so. They use a very limited number of suppliers because they can rely on these suppliers to provide goods of the quality required at a competitive price. They do not keep any documents in relation to negotiations with other potential suppliers or other quotes obtained.
In relation to the above, which of the following statements are valid?
CVB is a consulting firm that occupies a large office with many individual staff offices Staff access the corporate network through a wired network AM work files and company emails are accessed through this network
CVB is upgrading its office heating system At present, each room in the building has a simple, mechanical thermostat that can be used to regulate the heating CVB plans to install smart thermostats in each room These will make it possible to reduce heating costs by monitoring room temperatures centrally, using software that will be installed on the corporate network It would be expensive to connect the thermostats to CVB's existing wired network but it would be possible to connect a wireless router to the network so that CVB could install wireless smart thermostats instead The software on the network's server could then monitor and control the thermostats via the Wi-Fi connection that would be created by the wireless router.
Which TWO of the following statements are correct?
A project has an NPV of £1,200,000. The present value of material costs which are included in the NPV calculation are £8,000,000.
What is the sensitivity of the project to changes in material costs?
Give your answer to the nearest whole percentage.
H manufactures and sells healthy dietary supplements. The company recruits individuals as part-time agents to sell its products to friends and colleagues. These agents are required to buy H's products and to resell them at a small mark-up.
For a fee, H will provide agents with training in persuasive selling techniques. Agents who pass exams at the conclusion of this training can become distributors. Distributors buy bulk quantities of H's products at a discount and can recruit their own sales agents. Those agents can also take training and can recruit agents of their own.
At what stage does H stop being a legitimate business and become a pyramid selling fraud?
HJK is a retailer, with more than 40 shops around the country. The directors suspect that a serious fraud has occurred at one of the branches and a team of internal auditors has been sent to investigate.
An analytical review investigation shows that sales revenue is in line with budget, but overtime payments to shop staff exceed budget by 20%.
How should the internal audit team proceed?
The board of OKN is considering an investment opportunity that will require the company to borrow a large amount in month 10 of the current financial year and to invest it immediately in property, plant and equipment. This investment has a positive net present value that justifies the risk, but the directors are reluctant to invest in the project.
Why might the directors be reluctant?
Q is a company which generates electricity from alternative energy sources. It has just begun constructing a wind farm near a well-known beauty spot. The project has been controversial as campaigners say it will be noisy and unsightly.
The campaigners took legal action but lost the case. Some of them have started a campaign of direct action against Q and are physically blocking roads leading to the site and attempting to intimidate Q's staff.
Q has hired a security company to help it to protect its staff.
In relation to the ethics of this scenario, which of the following statements are valid?
The safety guard on a piece of equipment was broken. The factory manager suspended an operator who refused to operate the equipment until it was repaired. The factory manager paid another operator a bonus for operating the damaged equipment until the safety guard could be repaired.
What does this incident say about the control environment within that factory?
D has decided to invest in a new factory at a cost of $6,000,000. The discount rate of the project is 22% and the PV of tax shield is $80,000.
What is the IRR?
Give your answer to two decimal places.
L's risk register currently states the likelihood of risks m terms of their estimated percentage probabilities. The risk committee cs considering classifying risks using a three point scale high, medium and low.
Which TWO of the following are true?
C Ltd is a private, family-owned company which is hoping to become listed on a recognised Stock Exchange within the next two years. At the moment, the Board of Directors comprises five directors; four of whom are from the founding family and all of whom are involved in the day-to-day running of the business. The remaining director obtained a seat on the Board three years ago as a condition of an investment by a venture capital fund.
The Board meets in half-day sessions once a fortnight and the Board meetings are reasonably well run. All decisions are taken by the Board as a whole. There are no sub-committees.
Which of the following steps would it be appropriate for C Ltd to take in the light of the proposed listing?
D's Board has been advised by the auditors that D's control environment is weak and should be improved. Which TWO of the following measures will help to improve the control environment?
The government health service in country H employs well over 100,000 staff in various locations throughout the country. Traditionally, local management has had high levels of autonomy in relation to personnel issues and there are several different human resources (HR) managers located across various regions.
The government has decided to introduce a completely new HR/payroll information system to have just one database containing all relevant information about every staff member on the payroll (start date, job title, salary and all other details) and to use this information to begin streamlining recruitment and HR policies.
The government has outsourced the system's development to a reputable company.
Which of the following are disadvantages associated with this IT project?
Y Company wishes to recruit an employee who will have responsibility for the receipt and handling of cash
From the point of view of the internal auditor which THREE of the following would be most likely to provide useful information about the candidate"?
A UK manufacturing company has simultaneously:
• purchased a put option to sell USD 1million at an exercise price of GBP1.00 = USD1.65
• sold a call option that grants the option holder the right to buy USD 1million at a price of GBP1.00 = USD1.61 (this option has the same maturity date as the put).
Which of the following is a valid explanation for entering into these option positions?
The internal audit department should always give a report at the end of its audit. This report is intended to be useful and help the company going forward. The report should always include any recommendations for improvements. Which of the following statements are true and which are false?
You are a consultant to an international charity which provides aid to people displaced by war, civil unrest, and natural disaster. The charity has requested you to carry out a post implementation review on their new procurement and logistics system. Which TWO of the following should you be most concerned about when conducting this review?
Company C wishes to recruit an employee who will have responsibility for, among other things, the receipt and handling of cash. Which THREE of the following would be most likely to provide useful information about the candidate from the point of view of the Internal Auditor?
An internal audit investigation involved conducting compliance tests on the processing of purchase invoices.
The purchase ledger clerk compares invoices against purchase orders and passes them for payment The invoices are then input into a computerised purchase ledger system The system checks that the supplier has a valid purchase ledger account, as authorised by the chief buyer, before crediting the supplier's account with the value of the invoice.
The internal auditor checked a sample of recorded purchase invoices against their corresponding purchase orders The internal auditor found four cases where invoices could not be agreed to corresponding purchase orders.
What is the potential significance of this compliance error?
C Ltd is a private, family-owned company which is hoping to become listed on a recognised Stock Exchange within the next two years. At the moment, the Board of Directors comprises five directors; four of whom are from the founding family and all of whom are involved in the day-to-day running of the business. The remaining director obtained a seat on the Board three years ago as a condition of an investment by a venture capital fund.
The Board meets in half-day sessions once a fortnight and the Board meetings are reasonably well run. All decisions are taken by the Board as a whole. There are no sub-committees.
Which of the following steps would it be appropriate for C Ltd to take in the light of the proposed listing?
FBK produces motorbikes for the high end sports market. The company has recently developed a bike that uses a powerful electric motor instead of a petrol engine.
Which of the following are product risks?
Select ALL that apply.
You are the Management Accountant for P, a food manufacturing company with an annual sales revenue of $5 million.
You discover that the Production Manager's records are inconsistent. Raw materials purchased do not agree to the total recorded for transfers to production plus wastage. There is an average shortfall of 2% of purchases.
You investigated and discovered that there are often mistakes made during manufacturing that results in food that is safe to eat, but cannot be sold because of visual flaws. The Production Manager is supposed to scrap all such damaged product and write all such losses off as waste, but you discovered that he has been giving the damaged food to a charity that assists homeless people. No records are made of such gifts in order to conceal the losses due to manufacturing errors.
What should you do?
An oil company has entered into a joint venture with a competing oil company to develop a new oil field. The joint venture arrangement is intended to mitigate the risks associated with developing the oil field.
The following disclosure appears in the oil company's risk report:
"Many of our large projects and operations are conducted through joint ventures. These arrangements involve complex risk allocation and indemnification arrangements and we have less control over these activities than we would have if we had full ownership and control. Our partners may have economic or business interests that are opposed to ours, and may exercise the right to block key decisions or actions. We believe the joint arrangement is in our best interest."
Which of the following statements are correct?
Which THREE of the following are key elements of cyber security risk governance?
Division A of X plc produced the following results in the last financial year.
Net profit $200,000 Gross capital employed $1,000,000
For evaluation purposes all divisional assets are valued at original cost.
The division is considering a project that has a positive NPV, will increase annual net profit by $15,000, but will require average inventory levels to increase by $50,000 and non-current assets to increase by $50,000.
X plc imposes a 16% capital charge on its divisions. Given these circumstances, will the evaluation criteria of return on investment (ROI) and residual income (RI) motivate division A managers to accept the project?
Which of the following statements concerning the use of balanced scorecards to measure divisional performance is correct?
GHJ is a manufacturing company that insures against the financial costs associated with industrial injuries involving staff. The Health and Safety Office is part of GHJ's Operations Department. GHJ's insurers will automatically increase the insurance premium by 10% in the event of a claim against the policy.
Which TWO of the following are correct?
Passwords are frequently used to control access to computer systems.
Which of the following characteristics should a password have in order to make it effective?
H sells machinery and also associated services, such as advice and repairs. H's industry is going through considerable transformation.
Classify each of the examples of information available to H's management as strategic, operational or of having little value.
D is a large oil refinery.
The managers have identified four risks shown in the risk map below:
Which of the risk mitigations listed below would be the best for dealing with the two risks classified as medium likelihood and high impact?
Which of the following actions would breach CIMA's Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants?
YY is a company which generates electricity from alternative energy sources It has just begun constructing a wind farm near a well-known beauty spot The protect has been controversial as campaigners say it will be noisy and unsightly.
The campaigners took legal action but lost the case Some of them have started a campaign of direct action against YY and are physically blocking roads leading to the site and attempting to intimidate YY's staff
YY has hired a security company to help it to protect its staff
Which of the following statements are view in relation to the ethics of this scenario''
Select ALL that apply.
You are the Management Accountant for a company which supplies baked food to a string of retail outlets; biscuits, cakes, savoury snacks etc.
You discover that a trainee employee, who is responsible for cleaning out the delivery vans has been taking damaged goods and packets which have reached their sales expiry date and has been selling them to friends. These products would otherwise have been discarded as waste.
The trainee in question is the nephew of one of the senior managers.
What is the correct course of action?
The Board of Directors of VCX, a state-owned electricity company, includes four executive directors the Chief Executive Officer, the Finance Director the Operation Director and the Technical Director
All of the shares in the company vest in the Office of the Minister for Energy, who is entitled to appoint two non-executive directors to the Board It has been alleged that the Minister appoints political "insiders" who have no particular knowledge of. or interest in. the electricity industry
There are three further non-executive directors
• L, who spent seven years as Chief Executive of VCX, but retired from that role two years ago,
• M, who spent several years on the Board of a state electricity company in a different country to VCX but who resigned from it before accepting the position with VCX: and
• N, who is a qualified and experienced professional accountant
In relation to best practice in respect of Corporate Governance, which of the following statements are valid? Select ALL that apply
C Ltd is a private, family-owned company which is hoping to become listed on a recognised Stock Exchange within the next two years. At the moment, the Board of Directors comprises five directors; four of whom are from the founding family and all of whom are involved in the day-to-day running of the business. The remaining director obtained a seat on the Board three years ago as a condition of an investment by a venture capital fund.
The Board meets in half-day sessions once a fortnight and the Board meetings are reasonably well run. All decisions are taken by the Board as a whole. There are no sub-committees.
Which of the following steps would it be appropriate for C Ltd to take in the light of the proposed listing?
N, a large company in the food production industry, has grown over the years by the acquisition of several smaller rivals. The company has ten branches located in its home country and has just opened a foreign branch for the first time. It has recently made some changes to the structure and implementation of its control system.
Which TWO of these would be most likely to improve the overall control system?