As in most ethical situations, making a true or false promise involves other people. Almos
第1题
(c) Assess how the fundamental ethical principles of IFAC’s Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants should
be applied to the provision of a forensic investigation service. (6 marks)
第2题
第3题
(c) Explain how absolutist (dogmatic) and relativist (pragmatic) ethical assumptions would affect the outcome
of Anne’s decision. (6 marks)
第4题
(c) Assess Mr Hogg’s belief that employing child labour is ‘always ethically wrong’ from deontological and
teleological (consequentialist) ethical perspectives. (9 marks)
第5题
"They can now have some involvement in their destiny," says Adrian Owen of the University of Cambridge, who led the team doing the work.
In an earlier experiment, Owen's team asked a woman previously diagnosed as being in a vegetative state to picture herself carrying out one of two different activities. The resulting brain activity suggested she understood the commands and was therefore conscious.
Now Owen's team has taken the idea a step further. A man also diagnosed with VS was able to answer yes and no to specific questions by imagining himself engaging in the same activities.
The results suggest that it is possible to give a degree of choice to some people who have no other way of communicating with the outside world. "We are not just showing they are conscious, we are giving them a voice and a way to communicate," says neurologist (神经病学家) Steven Laureys of the University of Liege in Belgium, Owen's partner.
Doctors traditionally base these diagnoses on how someone behaves: for example, whether they can glance in different directions in response to questions. The new results show that you don't need behavioural indications to identify awareness and even a degree of cognitive proficiency. All you need to do is tap into brain activity directly.
The work "changes everything", says Nicholas Schiff, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who is carrying out similar work on patients with consciousness disorders. "Knowing that someone could persist in a state like this and not show evidence of the fact that they can answer yes/no questions should he extremely disturbing to our practice."
One of the most difficult questions you might want to ask someone is whether they want to carry on living. But as Owen and Laureys point out, the scientific, legal and ethical challenges for doctors asking such questions are formidable.
"They" in the second paragraph can be replaced by "______".
A.patients in a VS
B.researchers
C.monitoring machines
D.specific questions
第6题
of international accounting, auditing and ethical standards. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has
been at the forefront of the development of the worldwide accountancy profession through its activities in ethics,
auditing and education.
Required:
Explain the developments in each of the following areas and indicate how they affect Chartered Certified
Accountants:
(a) IFAC’s ‘Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants’; (5 marks)
第7题
(b) Chatam, a limited liability company, is a long-standing client. One of its subsidiaries, Ayora, has made losses
for several years. At your firm’s request, Chatam’s management has made a written representation that goodwill
arising on the acquisition of Ayora is not impaired. Your firm’s auditor’s report on the consolidated financial
statements of Chatam for the year ended 31 March 2005 is unmodified. Your firm’s auditor’s report on the
financial statements of Ayora is similarly unmodified. Chatam’s Chief Executive, Charles Barrington, is due to
retire in 2006 when his share options mature. (6 marks)
Required:
Comment on the ethical and other professional issues raised by each of the above matters and their implications,
if any, for the continuation of each assignment.
NOTE: The mark allocation is shown against each of the three issues.
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1. ‘Good’, allowing students to continue with no issues;
2. ‘Some concerns’, meaning students are counselled and then allowed to continue; and,
3. ‘Poor’, where students are dismissed from the audit practice.
The appraisal committee is comprised of three people: managing partner Jack Hu, the training manager (both of whom are professional accountants) and the person responsible for human resources. The committee receives confidential reports on each student and makes decisions based on the views of relevant engagement partners and also exam results. It is normally the training manager who makes the recommendation and in most cases his appraisal is agreed and then acted upon accordingly. Because the appraisals are confidential between the student and the firm, the list of students and their appraisal categories are not publicised within the firm.
When the 2010 intake was being appraised last year, one student was appraised by the training manager as ‘poor’ but was not dismissed. Polly Shah was unpopular among other students because she was considered lazy and technically weak. She also failed a number of her exams. Other students who were appraised as ‘poor’ were dismissed, but Polly received a brief counselling session from Jack Hu and then returned to her duties. Polly stayed for another year and then, having failed more exams, left Jojo to pursue other career interests outside accounting.
Polly’s departure triggered some discussion amongst Jojo’s partners as to why she had been retained when other poor performers had not. It later emerged that Jack Hu was a close friend of Polly’s parents and had enjoyed free holidays in the Shah family’s villa for several years. Because he was the managing partner, Mr Hu was able to insist on retaining Polly, despite the objections of the training manager and the human resources representative, although the training manager was reported to be furious at the decision to retain Polly.
Required:
(a) Define ‘conflict of interest’ and assess the consequences of Jack Hu’s behaviour after Polly Shah’s appraisal. (10 marks)
(b) Describe four ethical safeguards that could be used in Jojo to prevent a recurrence of the events like those described in the case. (8 marks)
(c) The case raises issues of the importance of senior management performance measurement. In a public company, this refers to directors, and in a privately-owned partnership like Jojo, it refers to partners. The managing partner (Mr Hu’s position) is equivalent to the role of chief executive.
Required:
Explain the typical criteria used in the performance measurement of individual directors and discuss the reasons why individual performance measurement of partners may be difficult to implement at Jojo. (7 marks)
第9题
Mr Oggon Mordue, a financial journalist who had worked in audit and assurance for many years, was in the audience.
He suggested that the normal advice on threats to independence was wrong. On the contrary in fact, the more services that a professional services firm can provide to a client the better, as it enables the firm to better understand the client and its commercial and accounting needs. Mrs Yttria disagreed, saying that his views were a good example of professional services firms not acting in the public interest.
Mr Mordue said that when he was a partner at a major professional services firm, he got to know his clients very well through the multiple links that his firm had with them. He said that he knew all about their finances from providing audit and assurance services, all about their tax affairs through tax consulting and was always in a good position to provide any other advice as he had acted as a consultant on other matters for many years including advising on mergers, acquisitions, compliance and legal issues. He became very good friends with the directors of client companies, he said. The clients, he explained, also found the relationship very helpful and the accounting firms did well financially out of it.
Another reporter in the audience argued with Mr Mordue. Ivor Nahum said that Mr Mordue represented the ‘very worst’ of the accounting profession. He said that accounting was a ‘biased and value laden’ profession that served minority interests, was complicit in environmental degradation and could not serve the public interest as long as it primarily served the interests of unfettered capitalism. He said that the public interest was badly served by accounting,as it did not address poverty, animal rights or other social injustices.
Required:
(a) Explain, using accounting as an example, what ‘the public interest’ means as used by Mrs Yttria in her
speech. (5 marks)
(b) This requirement concerns ethical threats. It is very important for professional accountants to be aware of ethical threats and to avoid these where possible.
Required:
(i) With reference to the case as appropriate, describe five types of ethical threat. (5 marks)
(ii) Assess the ethical threats implied by Mr Mordue’s beliefs. (8 marks)
(c) Assess Ivor Nahum’s remarks about the accounting profession in the light of Gray, Owen & Adams’ deep
green (or deep ecologist) position on social responsibility. (7 marks)
第10题
(b) As a newly-qualified Chartered Certified Accountant in Boleyn & Co, you have been assigned to assist the ethics
partner in developing ethical guidance for the firm. In particular, you have been asked to draft guidance on the
following frequently asked questions (‘FAQs’) that will be circulated to all staff through Boleyn & Co’s intranet:
(i) What Information Technology services can we offer to audit clients? (5 marks)
Required:
For EACH of the three FAQs, explain the threats to objectivity that may arise and the safeguards that should
be available to manage them to an acceptable level.
NOTE: The mark allocation is shown against each of the three questions.