Directors' Responsibilities, Accountability, and Business Judgment: The Pierse Contracting Case

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Niamh M. Brennan

ABSTRACT This case helps students understand the challenging decisions faced by a company's board of directors (i.e., survival of the company) and the legal risks directors experience when business fails. The case is based on actual court proceedings involving a company's liquidator taking legal action to restrict the tenure of the directors. Key judgments facing the directors and disputed by the liquidator include the valuation of financial statement assets and the preparation of the financial statements on a going-concern basis. The case also addresses directors' relationships with the company's external auditor/advisors. Students are asked to consider whether the directors acted responsibly in relation to their stewardship of the company and whether the directors should be held accountable and sanctioned following the company's collapse. The case adopts a novel courtroom setting, requiring students to role-play by adopting the characters and presenting the plaintiff's and defendants' lawyers' arguments, and the judges deciding the case.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Roszkowska

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the audit-related causes of financial scandals and advice on how emerging technologies can provide solutions thereto. Specifically, this study seeks to look at the facilitators of financial statement fraud and explain specific fintech advancements that contribute to financial information reliability for equity investments. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the case studies of Enron and Arthur Andersen to document the evidence of audit-related issues in historical financial scandals. Then, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary literature review at the intersection of business, accounting and engineering, provides a foundation to propose technology advancements that can solve identified problems in accounting and auditing. Findings The findings show that blockchain, internet of things, smart contracts and artificial intelligence solutions have different functionality and can effectively solve various financial reporting and audit-related problems. Jointly, they have a strong potential to enhance the reliability of the information in financial statements and generally change how companies operate. Practical implications The proposed and explained technology advancements should be of interest to all publicly listed companies and investors, as they can help safeguard equity investments, thus build investors’ trust towards the company. Social implications Aside from implications for capital markets participants, the study findings can materially benefit various stakeholder groups, the broader company environment and the economy. Originality/value This is the first paper that seeks solutions to financial fraud and audit-related financial scandals in technology and not in implementing yet another regulation. Given the recent technology advancements, the study findings provide insights into how the role of an external auditor might evolve in the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-110
Author(s):  
Elia Hinarno ◽  
Maria Stefani Osesoga

The objective of this study was to obtain empirical evidence about the effect of auditor’s quality, financial condition, company’s ownership, disclosure, company’s growth, and debt default on the acceptance of going concern audit opinion. The object of this study is the manufacture companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2011 -2014. Samples of this research were taken by using purposive sampling as many as 8 manufactures company. Criteria taken among companies that publish annual report with financial statements audited by an external auditor in the year 2011 – 2014, financial statements period is begin on 1 January and ended on 31 December, using rupiah as a currency, and have a net loss at least 2 periods in a row. This research use regression logistic, because the dependent variable measured by nominal scale. In testing the simultaneous significant auditor’s quality, financial condition, institutional’s ownership, managerial’s ownership, disclosure, company’s growth, and debt default have significant effect towards going concern audit opinion. In T test, in partial, the independent variabel auditor’s quality, financial condition, institutional’s ownership, managerial’s ownership, disclosure, company’s growth, and debt default, does not have a significant effect on the auditor in the provision of going concern audit opinion. Keywords: Auditor’s Quality, Company’s Growth, Debt Default, Disclosure, Financial Condition, Going Concern, Institutional’s Ownership, Managerial’s Ownership.


2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David V. Budescu ◽  
Mark E. Peecher ◽  
Ira Solomon

SUMMARY We use simulation to investigate the joint effects of materiality, evidence extent, evidence nature, and misstatement type on achieved audit risk, i.e., the risk of undetected material financial statement misstatement due to error or fraud. Our primary results are fourfold. First, contrary to conventional audit wisdom, we show that elevating the extent of testing decreases achieved audit risk only under certain conditions and may well increase it. Second, reducing materiality (attempting to perform a more precise audit) can either enhance or jeopardize audit effectiveness. Third, learning about the quality of the internal controls over financial reporting not only can help the auditor to perform an integrated audit, but also helps the auditor to reach better judgments about the extent to which and how evidence from the auditee organization's management and/or information systems may be distorted as a result of misstatement, reducing the risk that the auditor would be misled by such evidence. Fourth, when financial statements are biased intentionally due to fraud, it is especially important for the external auditor to supplement more traditional audit tests with tests that produce evidence that is less likely to be biased by management. Auditors who do not understand these four results run a heightened risk of compromising audit effectiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7942
Author(s):  
Diana da Silva ◽  
Danie Schutte ◽  
Jhalukpreya Surujlal

Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to study the IFRS implications of COVID-19 for selected travel and leisure companies listed on the JSE. The article investigates how these selected companies disclose financial information regarding the going concern, or in other words; the sustainability of the company, revenue of the company, how the companies made estimations, and more, to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their financial information. Design/methodology/approach: content analysis was used to analyse the financial statements of ten travel and leisure companies listed on the JSE. This analysis indicated what additional disclosures these companies have in the light of COVID-19. Findings: even though there is no specific IFRS standard providing guidance on the impact of COVID-19, the findings reveal that the companies took utmost care in disclosing information and the impact of COVID-19 in the financial statements. Companies cautiously considered the impact of the coronavirus on their financial results and provided the users of these financial statements with transparent financial information, regarding going concern and sustainability of the company, revenue, estimations, and more. Originality/value: a new economic crisis, different from any other economic crises, emerged as a result of COVID-19 and the IFRS implications such as, the effect on sustainability and going concern, impact on revenue of companies, financial estimations during the coronavirus pandemic, the effect of COVID-19 on the financial subsequent events and other financial statement disclosures is still unclear. This study is deemed of vital importance as the users of financial statements require all the necessary information about how COVID-19 has affected these companies, and whether or not these companies will be sustainable in the foreseeable future, as to enable the financial statement users to make informed financial decisions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Yudha Herlambang

As we know that,the aspect of going concern or bankruptcy of the entitiy become the issued or the problem must be considered by the external auditor.In the profession of Public Acccountant.\The external auditor must give the opinion objectively and independent. So that the Report of AuditorIndependent give the objective and right  information ( no biased information) to the external user of Financial Statement how to make decision. One of the judgement must be considered by the external auditor is the bancruptcy of the entity (auditee ).One of  the alternative method to decide the condition of entity’s going concern is Altman Z Score. In this paper,author will discuss about designing the Programming Algorithm  of Altman - Z Score. The author design the program mentioned above by using Quick Basic Programming Language and Pascal  Software.The author also design the accounting ratio programming into the part of source code or  listing program mentioned above


Author(s):  
Tammie J Schaefer ◽  
Veena L Brown ◽  
Matthew S. Ege ◽  
Noel Harding ◽  
Dana R. Hermanson ◽  
...  

We commend the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (the Board) on its efforts to determine “whether the auditing standards related to fraud and going concern need to be updated to reflect the rapidly evolving external reporting landscape.” We especially commend the Board on the timeliness of the call for input into these issues in that there is sufficient time to conduct research to further inform questions raised in the Discussion Paper and the questions that will inevitably arise as deliberations continue and progress is made on the project. We note below insights from the extant research literature as they relate to the questions posed in the Discussion Paper, but there remain many unanswered questions. We believe that many members of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association stand ready to work with the Board and other stakeholders to inform deliberations in this area.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-450
Author(s):  
Yudha Herlambang

As we know that,the aspect of going concern or bankruptcy of the entitiy become the issued or the problem must be considered by the external auditor.In the profession of Public Acccountant.\The external auditor must give the opinion objectively and independent. So that the Report of AuditorIndependent give the objective and right  information ( no biased information) to the external user of Financial Statement how to make decision. One of the judgement must be considered by the external auditor is the bancruptcy of the entity (auditee ).One of  the alternative method to decide the condition of entity’s going concern is Altman Z Score. In this paper,author will discuss about designing the Programming Algorithm  of Altman - Z Score. The author design the program mentioned above by using Quick Basic Programming Language and Pascal  Software.The author also design the accounting ratio programming into the part of source code or  listing program mentioned above


1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Cormier ◽  
Michel Magnan ◽  
Bernard Morard

A central tenet of audited financial statements is the assumption that the reporting firm will remain in business for the foreseeable future, that is, it is a going concern. However, recent years have seen a wave of highly visible corporate failures that have greatly reduced investors' confidence in auditors' work. This paper develops a tool to evaluate the going concern risk of an audit client, within the risk analysis framework suggested by the auditing literature. The study is innovative along four dimensions. First, new developments in financial statement analysis research are applied to auditing. Second, in addition to quantitative indicators reflecting trends in financial statements, the model also includes qualitative corporate governance characteristics suggested by current audit practice. Third, the concept of going concern failure is broadened and is not restricted to legal bankruptcy. Finally, complementary multivariate classification techniques, logit, linear discriminant analysis, and recursive partitioning are used to provide predictive and interpretative guidance to auditors. Results suggest that a systematic interpretation of financial statements and an evaluation of investment and accounting decisions made by managers would allow auditors to classify firms before the advent of any economic loss. Furthermore, some ratios provide consistent signals about going concern failures. Implications about audit work are then discussed.


Author(s):  
Nguyen Tien Hung ◽  
Huynh Van Sau

The study was conducted to identify fraudulent financial statements at listed companies (DNNY) on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) through the Triangular Fraud Platform This is a test of VSA 240. At the same time, the conformity assessment of this model in the Vietnamese market. The results show that the model is based on two factors: the ratio of sales to total assets and return on assets; an Opportunity Factor (Education Level); and two factors Attitude (change of independent auditors and opinion of independent auditors). This model is capable of accurately forecasting more than 78% of surveyed sample businesses and nearly 72% forecasts for non-research firms.  Keywords Triangle fraud, financial fraud report, VSA 240 References Nguyễn Tiến Hùng & Võ Hồng Đức (2017), “Nhận diện gian lận báo cáo tài chính: Bằng chứng thực nghiệm tại các doanh nghiệp niêm yết ở Việt Nam”, Tạp chí Công Nghệ Ngân Hàng, số 132 (5), tr. 58-72.[2]. Hà Thị Thúy Vân (2016), “Thủ thuật gian lận trong lập báo cáo tài chính của các công ty niêm yết”, Tạp chí tài chính, kỳ 1, tháng 4/2016 (630). [3]. Cressey, D. R. (1953). Other people's money; a study of the social psychology of embezzlement. New York, NY, US: Free Press.[4]. Bộ Tài Chính Việt Nam, (2012). Chuẩn mực kiểm toán Việt Nam số 240 – Trách nhiệm của kiểm toán viên đối với gian lận trong kiểm toán báo cáo tài chính. [5]. Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of financial economics, 3(4), 305-360.[6]. Võ Hồng Đức & Phan Bùi Gia Thủy (2014), Quản trị công ty: Lý thuyết và cơ chế kiểm soát, Ấn bản lần 1, Tp.HCM, Nxb Thanh Niên.[7]. Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman independence on corporate fraud. Managerial Finance 26 (11): 55-67.[9]. Skousen, C. J., Smith, K. R., & Wright, C. J. (2009). Detecting and predicting financial statement fraud: The effectiveness of the fraud triangle and SAS No. 99. Available at SSRN 1295494.[10]. Lou, Y. I., & Wang, M. L. (2011). Fraud risk factor of the fraud triangle assessing the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting. Journal of Business and Economics Research (JBER), 7(2).[11]. Perols, J. L., & Lougee, B. A. (2011). The relation between earnings management and financial statement fraud. Advances in Accounting, 27(1), 39-53.[12]. Trần Thị Giang Tân, Nguyễn Trí Tri, Đinh Ngọc Tú, Hoàng Trọng Hiệp và Nguyễn Đinh Hoàng Uyên (2014), “Đánh giá rủi ro gian lận báo cáo tài chính của các công ty niêm yết tại Việt Nam”, Tạp chí Phát triển kinh tế, số 26 (1) tr.74-94.[13]. Kirkos, E., Spathis, C., & Manolopoulos, Y. (2007). Data mining techniques for the detection of fraudulent financial statements. Expert Systems with Applications, 32(4), 995-1003.[14]. Amara, I., Amar, A. B., & Jarboui, A. (2013). Detection of Fraud in Financial Statements: French Companies as a Case Study. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 3(3), 40-51.[15]. Beasley, M. S. (1996). An empirical analysis of the relation between the board of director composition and financial statement fraud. Accounting Review, 443-465.[16]. Beneish, M. D. (1999). The detection of earnings manipulation. Financial Analysts Journal, 55(5), 24-36.[17]. Persons, O. S. (1995). Using financial statement data to identify factors associated with fraudulent financial reporting. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 11(3), 38-46.[18]. Summers, S. L., & Sweeney, J. T. (1998). Fraudulently misstated financial statements and insider trading: An empirical analysis. Accounting Review, 131-146.[19]. Dechow, P. M., Sloan, R. G., & Sweeney, A. P. (1996). Causes and consequences of earnings manipulation: An analysis of firms subject to enforcement actions by the SEC. Contemporary accounting research, 13(1), 1-36.[20]. Loebbecke, J. K., Eining, M. M., & Willingham, J. J. (1989). Auditors experience with material irregularities – Frequency, nature, and detectability. Auditing – A journal of practice and Theory, 9(1), 1-28. [21]. Abbott, L. J., Park, Y., & Parker, S. (2000). The effects of audit committee activity and independence on corporate fraud. Managerial Finance, 26(11), 55-68.[22]. Farber, D. B. (2005). Restoring trust after fraud: Does corporate governance matter?. The Accounting Review, 80(2), 539-561.[23]. Stice, J. D. (1991). Using financial and market information to identify pre-engagement factors associated with lawsuits against auditors. Accounting Review, 516-533.[24]. Beasley, M. S., Carcello, J. V., & Hermanson, D. R. (1999). COSO's new fraud study: What it means for CPAs. Journal of Accountancy, 187(5), 12.[25]. Neter, J., Wasserman, W., & Kutner, M. H. (1990). Applied statistical models.Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Burr Ridge, IL.[26]. Gujarati, D. N. (2009). Basic econometrics. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.[27]. McFadden, D. (1974). Conditional Logit Analysis of Qualita-tive Choice Behavior," in Frontiers in Econometrics, P. Zarenm-bka, ed. New York: Academic Press, 105-42.(1989). A Method of Simulated Moments for Estimation of Discrete Response Models Without Numerical Integration," Econometrica, 54(3), 1027-1058.[28]. DA Cohen, ADey, TZ Lys. (2008), “Accrual-Based Earnings Management in the Pre-and Post-Sarbanes-Oxley Periods”. The accounting review.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Mariati ◽  
Emmy Indrayani

Company’s financial condition reflected in the financial statements. However, there are many loopholes in the financial statements which can become a chance for the management and certain parties to commit fraud on the financial statements. This study aims to detect financial statement fraud as measured using fraud score model that occurred in issuers entered into the LQ-45 index in 2014-2016 with the use of six independent variables are financial stability, external pressure, financial target, nature of industry, ineffective monitoring and rationalization. This study using 27 emiten of LQ-45 index during 2014-2016. However, there are some data outlier that shall be removed, thus sample results obtained 66 data from 25 companies. Multiple linear regression analysis were used in this study. The results showed that the financial stability variables (SATA), nature of industry (RECEIVBLE), ineffective monitoring (IND) and rationalization (ITRENDLB) proved to be influential or have the capability to detect financial statement fraud. While the external pressure variables (DER) and financial target (ROA) are not able to detect the existence of financial statement fraud. Simultaneously all variables in this study were able to detect significantly financial statement fraud.


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