ASSIGNMENT: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING THEORY
This is a group assignment of maximum 3 students.
Questions must me answered from the perspective of the theories discussed in the subject. Providing a summary of the case without any discussion of the theory will not fetch marks.
The assignment must be provided with a cover paper mentioning the name and student numbers of the group members
Assignment is to submitted in the Turnitin on the Moodle.Only one students submits the assignment in Moodle which must include the cover page
Case Study Question 1 (20 marks) (500 words)
Read headline “Health rates as top social issue”. Would you expect management to worry about attitudinal surveys, such as the one described in Headline below. Explain you answer, as well explaining how such surveys might impact on the disclosure policies of an organisation.
CANBERRA: Health has taken over from crime as the most important social issue seen to be facing Australia, figures showed yesterday.
The survey of people’s views of environmental issues found the environment rated fifth in importance-----even though three in four Australians had at least one environment concern.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures showed 29% of respondents believed health was the most important social issue.
This was followed by crime (24%) education and unemployment (both 16%) and environmental problems (16 %).
In 1996, crime was seen as the most important social issue, followed by health, education, unemployment, the environment.
In the latest survey, dated March 1998, health was the most important issue to older people and least important to people aged 35-44.
In general, younger people were more concerned about long-term environmental problems although 19-24 year olds, as well as 45-54 year olds were most concerned about unemployment.
But the survey said 71% of Australians were concerned with at least one specific environmental problem.
The figure was up from 68% in 1996 but down from 75% in 1992.
People living in ACT were most concerned while Tasmanians were the least concerned about environmental problems.
Air pollution continued to be the problem of greatest worry for Australians, with 32% reporting it as their major concern.
The Chronicle,
Case Study Question 2 (20 marks) 500 words
Read headline “Think before you spend” and then, drawing on material covered in this subject, Accounting Theory, identify some ways in which you think corporations would respond to such allegations.
Here are some of the products “The Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping” believes we should think about before buying:
Beverages: Maxwell House. One of the thousands of familiar brands ----Bird’s, Jacobs, Ritz and Toblerone are others--- owned by tobacco giant Philip Morris of Marlboro cigarette fame, which recently changed its name to Altria.
It denies to this day that smoking is addictive, was fined for failing to disclose political donations and was one of George Bush’s largest corporate campaign contributors.
Clothing: Nike trainers. Nike is said to have petitioned the Indonesia government for exemption from the minimum wage and has been accused of lying about labour conditions at its contractor factories.
According to Sweatshop Watch, an average Nike worker would need to put in 72,000 years of work to receive what Tiger Woods gets for one five-year contract to publicise the brand.
Food: Tiger prawns. Hugely popular nowadays in restaurants and supermarkets, tiger prawns are mostly raised in man-made pools in Bangladesh and the Philippines.
It takes 50,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of prawn meat and the chemical additives to promote rapid growth ends up polluting the surrounding farming land.
People are routinely displaced to make way for these farms. Rape and murder have been reported in some cases.
Sport: Snooker cues. Thousands of snooker cues are made every year using wood from the Indonesian ramin tree. The ramin, which is also used for furniture and window blinds, is a rare and endangered tree listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but continues to be logged illegally at an alarming rate.
(Irish Independent, 1 December 2004, Independent Newspapers Ireland Ltd)
CASE STUDY QUESTION 3 (20 MARKS) 500 words
Read the Accounting Headline below and explain the Senate committee’s concerns from a capture theory perspective.
“Chief Scientist’s dual roles damaging to office, committee funds” ORRIETTA GUERRERA
The position of the Federal Government’s chief scientist should be full-time, a Senate committee has recommended after it found there was a conflict between Robin Batterham’s duties in the role and his role as chief technologist for mining giant Rio Tinto.
The committee, which has been investigating the potential for a conflict between Dr Batterham’s two part-time positions said the public’s faith in the office had been eroded because of his dual role.
However, it concluded there was no evidence that Dr Batterham ‘had behaved inappropriately or improperly’
The committee initiated the inquiry after the Government did not allow Dr Batterham to appear before a Senate Estimates Committee to answer conflict of interest allegations
Greens leader Bob Brown has raised concerns about Dr Batterham’s advice on largely untested process of burying greenhouse gas emissions, which is favoured by the coal mining industry. Yesterday Senator Brown called for Dr Batterham’s resignation ---- which the report did not recommend.
The majority report, supported by Labor, the Democrats and Greens, made four recommendations, including that the positions be made full-time and that it be subject to the same accountability measures as other senior public servant offices.
The committee said that ‘potential and apparent conflicts of interests which arose from Dr Batterham’s dual roles were as damaging to the Office of Chief Scientist as ‘ any real conflict of interest’. However, in a dissenting report, Government senators rejected that there was a conflict.
Age, 6 August 2004
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