1、ACCA 考试 P1 专业会计师真题 2010 年 12 月及答案解析(总分：124.99，做题时间：180 分钟)一、Section A This ONE(总题数：1，分数：50.00)In the 2009 results presentation to analysts, the chief executive of ZPT, a global internet communications company, announced an excellent set of results to the waiting audience. Chief executive Clive Xu an
2、nounced that, compared to 2008, sales had increased by 50%, profi ts by 100% and total assets by 80%. The dividend was to be doubled from the previous year. He also announced that based on their outstanding performance, the executive directors would be paid large bonuses in line with their contracts
3、. His own bonus as chief executive would be $20 million. When one of the analysts asked if the bonus was excessive, Mr Xu reminded the audience that the share price had risen 45% over the course of the year because of his efforts in skilfully guiding the company. He said that he expected the share p
4、rice to rise further on the results announcement, which it duly did. Because the results exceeded market expectation, the share price rose another 25% to $52. Three months later, Clive Xu called a press conference to announce a restatement of the 2009 results. This was necessary, he said, because of
5、 some regrettable accounting errors. This followed a meeting between ZPT and the legal authorities who were investigating a possible fraud at ZPT. He disclosed that in fact the fi gures for 2009 were increases of 10% for sales, 20% for profi ts and 15% for total assets which were all signifi cantly
6、below market expectations. The proposed dividend would now only be a modest 10% more than last year. He said that he expected a market reaction to the restatement but hoped that it would only be a short-term effect. The fi rst questioner from the audience asked why the auditors had not spotted and c
7、orrected the fundamental accounting errors and the second questioner asked whether such a disparity between initial and restated results was due to fraud rather than accounting errors. When a journalist asked Clive Xu if he intended to pay back the $20 million bonus that had been based on the previo
8、us results, Mr Xu said he did not. The share price fell dramatically upon the restatement announcement and, because ZPT was such a large company, it made headlines in the business pages in many countries. Later that month, the company announced that following an internal investigation, there would b
9、e further restatements, all dramatically downwards, for the years 2006 and 2007. This caused another mass selling of ZPT shares resulting in a fi nal share value the following day of $1. This represented a loss of shareholder value of $12 billion from the peak share price. Clive Xu resigned and the
10、government regulator for business ordered an investigation into what had happened at ZPT. The shares were suspended by the stock exchange. A month later, having failed to gain protection from its creditors in the courts, ZPT was declared bankrupt. Nothing was paid out to shareholders whilst supplier
11、s received a fraction of the amounts due to them. Some non-current assets were acquired by competitors but all of ZPTs 54,000 employees lost their jobs, mostly with little or no termination payment. Because the ZPT employees pension fund was not protected from creditors, the value of that was also s
12、everely reduced to pay debts which meant that employees with many years of service would have a greatly reduced pension to rely on in old age. The government investigation found that ZPT had been maintaining false accounting records for several years. This was done by developing an overly-complicate
13、d company structure that contained a network of international branches and a business model that was diffi cult to understand. Whereas ZPT had begun as a simple telecommunications company, Clive Xu had increased the complexity of the company so that he could hide losses and mis-report profi ts. In t
14、he companys reporting, he also substantially overestimated the value of future customer supply contracts. The investigation also found a number of signifi cant internal control defi ciencies including no effective management oversight of the external reporting process and a disregard of the relevant
15、 accounting standards. In addition to Mr Xu, several other directors were complicit in the activities although Shazia Lo, a senior qualified accountant working for the fi nancial director, had been unhappy about the situation for some time. She had approached the fi nance director with her concerns
16、but having failed to get the answers she felt she needed, had threatened to tell the press that future customer supply contract values had been intentionally and materially overstated (the change in fair value would have had a profit impact). When her threat came to the attention of the board, she w
17、as intimidated in the hope that she would keep quiet. She fi nally accepted a large personal bonus in exchange for her silence in late 2008. The investigation later found that Shazia Lo had been continually instructed, against her judgement, to report fi gures she knew to be grossly optimistic. When
18、 she was offered the large personal bonus in exchange for her silence, she accepted it because she needed the money to meet several expenses related to her mother who was suffering a long-term illness and for whom no state health care was available. The money was used to pay for a lifesaving operati
19、on for her mother and also to rehouse her in a more healthy environment. Shazia Lo made no personal fi nancial gain from the bonus at all (the money was all used to help her mother) but her behaviour was widely reported and criticised in the press after the collapse of the company. The investigation
20、 found that the auditor, JJC partnership (one of the largest in the country), had had its independence compromised by a large audit fee but also through receiving consultancy income from ZPT worth several times the audit fee. Because ZPT was such an important client for JJC, it had many resources an
21、d jobs entirely committed to the ZPT account. JJC had, it was found, knowingly signed off inaccurate accounts in order to protect the management of ZPT and their own senior partners engaged with the ZPT account. After the investigation, JJCs other clients gradually changed auditor, not wanting to be
22、 seen to have any connection with JJC. Accordingly, JJCs audit business has since closed down. This caused signifi cant disturbance and upheaval in the audit industry. Because ZPT was regarded for many years as a high performing company in a growing market, many institutional investors had increased
23、 the number of ZPT shares in their investment portfolios. When the share price lost its value, it meant that the overall value of their funds was reduced and some individual shareholders demanded to know why the institutional investors had not intervened sooner to either fi nd out what was really go
24、ing on in ZPT or divest ZPT shares. Some were especially angry that even after the fi rst restatement was announced, the institutional investors did not make any attempt to intervene. One small investor said he wanted to see more shareholder activism, especially among the large institutional investo
25、rs. Some time later, Mr Xu argued that one of the reasons for the development of the complex ZPT business model was that it was thought to be necessary to manage the many risks that ZPT faced in its complex and turbulent business environment. He said that a multiplicity of overseas offi ces was nece
26、ssary to address exchange rate risks, a belief challenged by some observers who said it was just to enable the ZPT board to make their internal controls and risk management less transparent.（分数：50.01）(1).(a) Because of their large shareholdings, institutional investors are sometimes able to interven
27、e directly in the companies they hold shares in. Required: (i) Explain the factors that might lead institutional investors to attempt to intervene directly in the management of a company; (6 marks) (ii) Construct the case for institutional investors attempting to intervene in ZPT after the fi rst re
28、sults restatement was announced. (6 marks)（分数：16.67）_(2).(b) Distinguish between absolutist and relativist approaches to ethics and critically evaluate the behaviour of Shazia Lo (the accountant who accepted a bonus for her silence) using both of these ethical perspectives. (10 marks)（分数：16.67）_(3).
29、(c) The ZPT case came to the attention of Robert Nie, a senior national legislator in the country where ZPT had its head offi ce. The country did not have any statutory corporate governance legislation and Mr Nie was furious at the ZPT situation because many of his voters had been badly fi nancially
30、 affected by it. He believed that legislation was needed to ensure that a similar situation could not happen again. Mr Nie intends to make a brief speech in the national legislative assembly outlining the case for his proposed legislation and some of its proposed provisions. Required: Draft sections
31、 of the speech to cover the following areas: (i) Explain the importance of sound corporate governance by assessing the consequences of the corporate governance failures at ZPT; (10 marks) (ii) Construct the case for the mandatory external reporting of internal fi nancial controls and risks; (8 marks
32、) (iii) Explain the broad areas that the proposed external report on internal controls should include, drawing on the case content as appropriate. (6 marks) Professional marks will be awarded in part (c) for the structure, flow, persuasiveness and tone of the answer. (4 marks)（分数：16.67）_二、Section B
33、TWO ques(总题数：3，分数：75.00)At a board meeting of JGP Chemicals Limited, the directors were discussing some recent negative publicity arising from the accidental emission of a chemical pollutant into the local river. As well as it resulting in a large fi ne from the courts, the leak had created a great
34、deal of controversy in the local community that relied on the polluted river for its normal use (including drinking). A prominent community leader spoke for those affected when she said that a leak of this type must never happen again or JGP would suffer the loss of support from the community. She a
35、lso reminded JGP that it attracts 65% of its labour from the local community. As a response to the problems that arose after the leak, the JGP board decided to consult an expert on whether the publication of a full annual environmental report might help to mitigate future environmental risks. The ex
36、pert, Professor Appo (a prominent academic), said that the company would need to establish an annual environmental audit before they could issue a report. He said that the environmental audit should include, in addition to a review and evaluation of JGPs safety controls, a full audit of the environm
37、ental impact of JGPs supply chain. He said that these components would be very important in addressing the concerns of a growing group of investors who are worried about such things. Professor Appo said that all chemical companies had a structural environmental risk and JGP was no exception to this.
38、 As major consumers of natural chemical resources and producers of potentially hazardous outputs, Professor Appo said that chemical companies should be aware of the wide range of ways in which they can affect the environment. CEO Keith Miasma agreed with Professor Appo and added that because JGP was
39、 in chemicals, any environmental issue had the potential to affect JGPs overall reputation among a wide range of stakeholders. When the board was discussing the issue of sustainability in connection with the environmental audit, the fi nance director said that sustainability reporting would not be n
40、ecessary as the company was already sustainable because it had no going concern issues. He said that JGP had been in business for over 50 years, should be able to continue for many years to come and was therefore sustainable. As far as he was concerned, this was all that was meant by sustainability.
41、 In the discussion that followed, the board noted that in order to signal its seriousness to the local community and to investors, the environmental audit should be as thorough as possible and that as much information should be made available to the public in the interests of transparency. It was ag
42、reed that contents of the audit (the agreed metrics) should be robust and with little room left for interpretation they wanted to be able to demonstrate that they had complied with their agreed metrics for the environmental audit. Required:（分数：24.99）(1).(a) Explain sustainability in the context of e
43、nvironmental auditing and criticise the fi nance directors understanding of sustainability. (6 marks)（分数：8.33）_(2).(b) Explain the three stages in an environmental audit and explore, using information from the case, the issues that JGP will have in developing these stages. (9 marks)（分数：8.33）_(3).(c)
44、 Defi ne environmental risk. Distinguish between strategic and operational risks and explain why the environmental risks at JGP are strategic. (10 marks)（分数：8.33）_KK is a large listed company. When a non-executive directorship of KK Limited became available, John Soria was nominated to fi ll the vac
45、ancy. John is the brother-in-law of KKs chief executive Ken Kava. John is also the CEO of Soria Supplies Ltd, KKs largest single supplier and is, therefore, very familiar with KK and its industry. He has sold goods to KK for over 20 years and is on friendly terms with all of the senior offi cers in
46、the company. In fact last year, Soria Supplies appointed KKs fi nance director, Susan Schwab, to a non-executive directorship on its board. The executive directors of KK all know and like John and so plan to ask the nominations committee to appoint him before the next AGM. KK has recently undergone
47、a period of rapid growth and has recently entered several new overseas markets, some of which, according to the fi nance director, are riskier than the domestic market. Ken Kava, being the dominant person on the KK board, has increased the risk exposure of the company according to some investors. Th
48、ey say that because most of the executive directors are less experienced, they rarely question his overseas expansion strategy. This expansion has also created a growth in employee numbers and an increase in the number of executive directors, mainly to manage the increasingly complex operations of the company. It was thought by so
