以下是高頓網(wǎng)校小編為學(xué)員整理的：ACCA P1-P3模擬題及解析。
 
　　In Yaya Company, operations director Ben Janoon recently realised there had been an increase in products failing the final quality checks. These checks were carried out in the QC (quality control) laboratory, which tested finished goods products before being released for sale. The product failure rate had risen from 1% of items two years ago to 4% now, and this meant an increase of hundreds of items of output a month which were not sold on to Yaya’s customers. The failed products had no value to the company once they had failed QC as the rework costs were not economic. Because the increase was gradual, it took a while for Mr Janoon to realise that the failure rate had risen.
　　A thorough review of the main production operation revealed nothing that might explain the increased failure and so attention was focused instead on the QC laboratory. For some years, the QC laboratory at Yaya, managed by Jane Goo, had been marginalised in the company, with its two staff working in a remote laboratory well away from other employees. Operations director Ben Janoon, who designed the internal control systems in Yaya, rarely visited the QC lab because of its remote location. He never asked for information on product failure rates to be reported to him and did not understand the science involved in the QC process. He relied on the two QC staff, Jane Goo and her assistant
　　John Zong, both of whom did have relevant scientific qualifications.
　　The two QC staff considered themselves low paid. Whilst in theory they reported to Mr Janoon, in practice, they conducted their work with little contact with colleagues. The work was routine and involved testing products against a set of compliance standards. A single signature on a product compliance report was required to pass or fail in QC and these reports were then filed away with no-one else seeing them.
　　It was eventually established that Jane Goo had found a local buyer to pay her directly for any of Yaya’s products which had failed the QC tests. The increased failure rate had resulted from her signing products as having ‘failed QC’ when, in fact, they had passed. She kept the proceeds from the sales for herself, and also paid her assistant, John Zong, a proportion of the proceeds from the sale of the failed products.
 
　　Required:
　　(a) Explain typical reasons why an internal control system might be ineffective. (5 marks)
　　(b) Explain the internal control deficiencies that led to the increased product failures at Yaya. (10 marks)
　　(c) Discuss the general qualities of useful information, stating clearly how they would be of benefit to Mr Janoon,and recommend specific measures which would improve information flow from the QC lab to Mr Janoon.(10 marks)
　　(25 marks)
 
　　Answer:
　　(a) Ineffective internal controls.
　　Well designed IC systems can be ineffective for a number of reasons.
　　Costs outweighing benefits. This is when an IC system provides poor value for money or it provides more assurance than is needed (i.e. the control is over-specified). In such a situation, the control will not be supported or trusted by those working alongside or within the control, and this will reduce its effectiveness.
　　Failures in human judgement when assessing a control, or fraud in measuring or reporting a control. Where a control relies upon human measurement, error is always a possibility either through lack of training, incompetence, wilful negligence or having a vested interest in control failure (such as with Jane Goo, who believed she could gain financially by a product failing to pass successfully through a quality control standard).
　　Collusion between employees, perhaps with a vested interest in misapplying or circumventing a control. The risk of this is greater when two or more people believe they may gain by it. It could be, for example, a sales team misquoting sales figures against a budget or directors misreporting accounting data to increase their bonuses or maintain a higher share price before
　　exercising share options. The collusion between Jane Goo and John Zong (who received part of the payment) was one of the factors that may have led to the failure of QC controls being effective at Yaya.
　　Non-routine or unforeseen events can render controls ineffective if they are intended to monitor a specific process only. Most internal controls are unable to cope with extraordinary events and so need to be adapted or circumvented when such events occur.
　　Previous or existing controls can become obsolete because they are not updated to meet changed conditions. A control introduced to monitor a process or risk that has changed, reduced or been discontinued will no longer be effective. Changes to key risks, for example, need to modified if they are to continue to remain effective in controlling the risk.
 
　　(b) IC deficiencies at Yaya.
　　Jane Goo was fraudulently entering compliance reports with no-one required to countersign them or confirm her checks.
　　The system did not require a second signature and no-one saw the product compliance reports after completion, so Jane had no one to review, confirm and assure that her QC measurements were true or accurate. She believed herself to be poorly paid and this may have increased the incentives for her to carry out the deceit. Additionally, it appears she was left to ‘destroy’ the goods that failed QC, allowing her to sell the goods externally. Segregating the disposal of the goods from the creation of the reports would also have helped prevent this fraud occurring.
　　Linked to this, there was collusion between Jane Goo and John Zong, who received part of the proceeds for his complicity in the fraud. This meant that the both of the people in the QC department were involved and the isolation of the laboratory made the discovery of their activities less likely.
　　There was no control capable of automatically signalling to management that the failure rate had increased. The fact that the rate rose gradually and not in a steep change seems to have made the change less visible, but a maximum acceptable failure rate with an appropriate measurement system would have triggered a signal to management that the rate had risen above it.
　　The way the QC department was viewed by the company meant that its activities would have received less scrutiny than other parts of the business. The QC department was marginalised and located away from other activities and the combination of these factors made it unlikely that they would often be disturbed. The fact that there was no automatic reporting link between QC and Mr Janoon was perhaps symptomatic of the marginalisation and this contributed to the problem.
　　The operations director Ben Janoon was negligent as a manager and had little control over the process. He rarely visited the QC lab, failed to monitor product failure rates, and failed to spot a fourfold increase in product failure rates. It was he that designed the system and with such a large number of weaknesses in the system, he must bear some of the responsibility for the lack of control, if not for the actual fraud itself.
 
　　(c) General qualities of information specific measures.
　　Qualities of useful information to Mr Janoon Useful information has a number of general qualities that distinguishes it from less-than-useful information. This is a very important element of an internal control system, as evidenced by a lack of information flow to Ben Janoon at Yaya Company.
　　Information flowing to Mr Janoon should be relevant, reliable, timely, understandable and cost-beneficial.
　　Relevant means that anything that Jane Goo feels should be brought to Mr Janoon’s attention should be included in the information. Any changes to the overall quality of finished goods should be voluntarily reported, for example, any issues that would prevent the QC lab performing its important function or any changes to product failure rates.
　　Reliable refers to the trustworthiness of the information and whether or not it is a faithful representation of what is being conveyed. It concerns the assumption that it is ‘hard’ information, that it is complete, correct, that it is impartial, unbiased,  accurate and complete. Mr Janoon needs to know that the information he receives from Jane Goo is a true reflection of what is actually the case in the QC lab and that, for example, the reported failure rates are not understated for her personal gain.
　　Timely refers to the fact that information has a time value. Information that is late, for example, may be completely useless to the receiver. Information should arrive so that it can be processed effectively by the receiver and used for decision-making as it was intended.
　　Mr Janoon does not understand the science behind the QC processes and it is therefore important that any information from the QC lab is understandable by him. Because Jane Goo and John Zong had relevant scientific qualifications, it was important that information fed to Mr Janoon was free of jargon and in a form that is meaningful to him as a non-scientist.
　　Cost beneficial means that the cost incurred to generate the information does not outweigh its benefit. Simple reports on QC compliance at Yaya would probably be very cost-beneficial, for example, but in other situations, special reports can be expensive to produce and have little consequence to end users. [Tutorial note: other approaches to this answer may also be taken.]
　　Specific information-flow measures
　　Mr Janoon could receive more frequent reports, maybe weekly or monthly, on QC failure rates. The fact that two years went by without him noticing the increased failure indicated that he had no effective information flow on the problem. A reliable flow of key QC metrics would enable him to plot these metrics over time, thereby highlighting any changes over time.
　　Providing a predetermined format for Jane Goo to complete would ensure that he obtained the necessary information and it would place the information flow in his hands rather than with Jane Goo.
　　The information he receives could be of a higher quality, with more detail and possibly ‘drilled down’ data on product compliance against specific metrics. The ‘drilled down’ data would have detected the fact that Jane Goo had failed products that should, according to the product specification, have passed, and this could also have detected the fraud earlier.
　　Regular routine physical contact with QC employees, especially the QC manager. The fraud was partly caused by the environment within Yaya that saw QC as marginal and inconvenient, and partly by Jane Goo, believing that her work was unaccountable and unmonitored. By moving the QC lab closer to the main operations or establishing a clearer formal reporting regime from the QC manager to the operations director, the quality of information flows would be improved, and opportunity
　　for fraud diminished.
 
　　高頓網(wǎng)校小編寄語：自信是成功的先決條件。

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