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  • 5 Marks

CR – May 2020 – Q3b(i) – Ethical Issues in Contract Bidding

This question requires a discussion on the ethical issues related to conflict of interest, confidentiality, and professional behavior in a contract bidding scenario.

You have just obtained your full membership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana). Following this successful achievement, you have been appointed as the Head of Finance at Asasiyemedeh Company Limited, a Ghanaian company, which provides catering services. Your former employer, Akwaba Limited, is a large public sector organization operating in Accra, where, as the Financial Accountant, you had the opportunity to work on areas relating to financial accounting, procurement, contracts, and bids. One of Asasiyemedeh Company Limited’s major contracts is with Akwaba Limited, your former employer. The contract is now due for renewal, and Asasiyemedeh Company Limited is preparing a competitive bid for this contract.

You have been tasked to lead the team responsible for bidding for this contract, but you are concerned as a professional that you might breach confidentiality if you accept this role. You also suspect that your knowledge and experience of Akwaba Limited were seen as good reasons for appointing you to the position of Head of Finance at Asasiyemedeh Company Limited. You do not in any way want to let your new employer down as you are aware that the loss of such a major contract would have a significant effect on the financial performance of Asasiyemedeh Company Limited, and its performance-related bonus scheme for management members.

Required:
Discuss the ethical issues raised in the above scenario.

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  • 5 Marks

AA – May 2021 – L2 – Q2a – Professional and Ethical Considerations

Explain the five fundamental principles of the Code of Ethics for audit practitioners.

The IFAC Code of ethics governs the practice of auditing to ensure that practitioners will act in the public interest. Furthermore, in an audit, many relevant auditing standards must be followed to perform work that will serve the needs of the users of the Auditor’s report.

Required:
Explain each of the FIVE (5) fundamental principles of the Code of Ethics and conduct for professional audit practitioners. (5 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

CR – Mar 2023 – L3 – Q3c – Regulatory framework and ethics

Analyze ethical principles breached in payroll and recommend actions for addressing ethical dilemmas.

BYF Health Facility offers varied medical services; it is known for its high-quality laboratory services. In 2021, the company added to its laboratory services, testing for Covid-19 following the increased demand by airlines that travelers must have negative Covid-19 status either through PCR or Antigen tests. Consequently, the company recruited additional workers in the year to work in the new Covid-19 Lab on a part-time basis. All part-time employees (Locum staff) are paid based on hours worked, either on an 8-hour or 12-hour cycle.

As a precondition, part-time workers are to log in and also log out on every working day, for hours worked to be computed by the log-in device.

Bismark Appau (Bismark), a brother of the Director of Health Services of BYF Health Facility, is one of the employees who was employed on a part-time basis at the Covid-19 Lab on an 8-hour cycle. Bismark has permanent employment with KBT hospital and hardly gets time to work at the Covid-19 Lab of BYF Health Facility. However, in preparing payroll of Locum staff, the Director of Health Services continuously insists that in the case of Bismark, the full hours for the total working days in the month on the 8-hour cycle should be used, regardless of the hours he worked. Colleague workers are aware of this special treatment to Bismark, and are unhappy about this preferential treatment.

Required: i) Based on the scenario above, justify the possible ethical principles that might have been breached and its effect on productivity. (6 marks)

ii) Recommend the possible actions to be taken in dealing with this ethical dilemma. (4 marks)

 

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  • 10 Marks

CR – July 2023 – L3 – Q3b – Regulatory framework and ethics

Identify ethical issues in financial statement adjustments and recommend actions for the new Finance Director to address these breaches.

b) Axim Manufacturing plc has just employed Mr. Kennedy Owusu as the Finance Director of the company. The previous Finance Director, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye, completed the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 before he left. The Auditors of the company are also done with the audit of the financial statement for the year, expressing an unmodified opinion on the accounts. Mr. Ebenezer Anokye is loved by the General staff, Management members and the Board of Directors for his ability in making the organisation profitable over the years, and “guaranteeing” increased end-of-year bonus payments to staff, as a consequence.

Mr. Kennedy Owusu wanted to familiarise himself with the operations of the company, and therefore decided to go through the financial statements for the previous year. He is dismayed to find several errors in the financial statements. The previous Finance Director, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye, passed several adjusting entries in January, 2022 to reflect in the 2021 financial statements. In one of such instances, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye recognised revenue on a large order received on December 28, 2021 but shipped on January 3, 2022. The narration or explanation given to this adjusting entry is, “omission of previous year sales, now recorded”.

Also, purchase of inventory in October 2021, which was fully sold by the end of the year had been recognised in January 2022. Finally, depreciation expense had been reduced by GH¢230,000. All these adjustments were designed to increase profit after tax or earnings per share, culminating in increased bonus payment to Management and the General staff.

Required:

i) Identify the ethical issues involved in the adjustments made by Mr. Ebenezer Anokye.

(5 marks)

ii) Recommend the possible actions that Mr. Kennedy Owusu, the new Finance Director, should take to resolve the ethical breaches and to reverse the wrong accounting treatments. (5 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

CR – Dec 2022 – L3 – Q3c – Regulatory Framework and Ethics

Address ethical issues surrounding special treatment of a cashier at Salisu Medical Centre and propose remedies.

Salisu Medical Centre runs 24-hour services every day. To ensure smooth cash collection from walk-in clients, the company also operates a 24-hour cash office. The cashiers work on a shift basis to cover the morning, afternoon, evening, and night services. There are five (5) cashiers employed by the firm, who are all supposed to work at least once in each of the shift periods before the year ends. Jennifer, one of the cashiers, has never worked on night duties since she was employed. The Finance Director of the company prepares the duty roster (time-schedule) for the cashiers’ shifts together with the Chief Cashier.

Jennifer’s special treatment has been continuously justified by the Finance Director due to her place of abode being far from the workplace. However, there are other cashiers who come on night-shift staying in her vicinity.

Jennifer is also known in the company for her frequent “excuse” duty from Doctors at the medical centre, allowing her to stay away from work, as well as her spontaneous use of annual leave days, sometimes obtaining additional casual leave. This behavior of Jennifer continuously affects workflow at the Cash Office, leading to another cashier being called to stand in for her, resulting in overtime payments for that cashier.

The conduct of Jennifer and the manner in which the Finance Director handles her case has caused concern among the other cashiers.

Required:

i) Describe the ethical issues involved and their implications on work output at Salisu Medical Centre.
(4 marks)

ii) Recommend possible measures that could be instituted to prevent such ethical challenges in the future.
(6 marks)

(Total: 10 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

AAA – Nov 2019 – L3 – Q1a – Rules of professional conduct, Professional responsibility and liability

Discusses the importance of integrity in professional relationships and evaluates the ethical and professional behavior issues in audit practice.

a) Asumasi Opoku has recently been appointed as a partner of Offei-Ansah & Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants. He has been a close friend of the Engagement Partner (EP), the firm’s managing partner for many years. Asumasi was previously the training manager in the firm and he has now been asked to act as training partner. This is the first time Offei-Ansah & Co have designated a particular partner as having responsibility for training.

One of the audit trainees, Ellen Danso, noted that she was disturbed by something that had happened on an audit of a company called Bremang Ltd, a medium-sized family-run business and longstanding client of Offei-Ansah & Co.

Ellen was auditing purchases of non-current assets when she noticed a transaction that she thought might be suspicious. There was a charge of GH¢125,000 (an individually material amount) for a Power Plant for an address in a rural area (no electricity) with no obvious link to the company. When she asked Bremang’s financial controller about the matter, she was told it referred to the installation of such a plant in a house owned by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This was to facilitate excellent communications and interaction with the CEO especially during the last quarter of the year when he liked to reside there with his family. She further explained that part of the cost was attributed to having to pay for a personal broadband connection since the house was in an isolated area where normal broadband connections were unavailable.

The financial controller appeared surprised and even irritated by the queries about the matter and said that auditors had not previously been concerned about the company being charged for non-current assets and operational expenses at properties owned by the CEO.

The engagement partner on the assignment happened to be the managing partner. Ellen told him what she had found and the Engagement Partner simply said that the charge could probably be ignored. He did, however, say that he would include a reference to the matter in the written representations letter required by ISA 580: Written Representations adding with a smile that “paper never refused ink”. About two months later, Ellen looked at the completed files and the letter of representation in which there was no reference to the matter.

When Asumasi Opoku heard about Ellen’s concerns, he realised that there was an ethical issue. At the very least the transaction should have been disclosed as a related party transaction under IAS 24: Related Party Disclosures but the situation was made more complicated by the fact that the Engagement Partner was (for all practical purposes) still Asumasi’s boss in Offei-Ansah & Co.

Required:

i) Explain TWO (2) reasons why integrity in professional relationships such as those described in the above scenario is vital. (2 marks)

ii) Evaluate FOUR (4) ethical and professional behavior issues relating to the stance of the Engagement Partner. (8 marks)

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  • 5 Marks

CR – May 2020 – Q3b(i) – Ethical Issues in Contract Bidding

This question requires a discussion on the ethical issues related to conflict of interest, confidentiality, and professional behavior in a contract bidding scenario.

You have just obtained your full membership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana). Following this successful achievement, you have been appointed as the Head of Finance at Asasiyemedeh Company Limited, a Ghanaian company, which provides catering services. Your former employer, Akwaba Limited, is a large public sector organization operating in Accra, where, as the Financial Accountant, you had the opportunity to work on areas relating to financial accounting, procurement, contracts, and bids. One of Asasiyemedeh Company Limited’s major contracts is with Akwaba Limited, your former employer. The contract is now due for renewal, and Asasiyemedeh Company Limited is preparing a competitive bid for this contract.

You have been tasked to lead the team responsible for bidding for this contract, but you are concerned as a professional that you might breach confidentiality if you accept this role. You also suspect that your knowledge and experience of Akwaba Limited were seen as good reasons for appointing you to the position of Head of Finance at Asasiyemedeh Company Limited. You do not in any way want to let your new employer down as you are aware that the loss of such a major contract would have a significant effect on the financial performance of Asasiyemedeh Company Limited, and its performance-related bonus scheme for management members.

Required:
Discuss the ethical issues raised in the above scenario.

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  • 5 Marks

AA – May 2021 – L2 – Q2a – Professional and Ethical Considerations

Explain the five fundamental principles of the Code of Ethics for audit practitioners.

The IFAC Code of ethics governs the practice of auditing to ensure that practitioners will act in the public interest. Furthermore, in an audit, many relevant auditing standards must be followed to perform work that will serve the needs of the users of the Auditor’s report.

Required:
Explain each of the FIVE (5) fundamental principles of the Code of Ethics and conduct for professional audit practitioners. (5 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

CR – Mar 2023 – L3 – Q3c – Regulatory framework and ethics

Analyze ethical principles breached in payroll and recommend actions for addressing ethical dilemmas.

BYF Health Facility offers varied medical services; it is known for its high-quality laboratory services. In 2021, the company added to its laboratory services, testing for Covid-19 following the increased demand by airlines that travelers must have negative Covid-19 status either through PCR or Antigen tests. Consequently, the company recruited additional workers in the year to work in the new Covid-19 Lab on a part-time basis. All part-time employees (Locum staff) are paid based on hours worked, either on an 8-hour or 12-hour cycle.

As a precondition, part-time workers are to log in and also log out on every working day, for hours worked to be computed by the log-in device.

Bismark Appau (Bismark), a brother of the Director of Health Services of BYF Health Facility, is one of the employees who was employed on a part-time basis at the Covid-19 Lab on an 8-hour cycle. Bismark has permanent employment with KBT hospital and hardly gets time to work at the Covid-19 Lab of BYF Health Facility. However, in preparing payroll of Locum staff, the Director of Health Services continuously insists that in the case of Bismark, the full hours for the total working days in the month on the 8-hour cycle should be used, regardless of the hours he worked. Colleague workers are aware of this special treatment to Bismark, and are unhappy about this preferential treatment.

Required: i) Based on the scenario above, justify the possible ethical principles that might have been breached and its effect on productivity. (6 marks)

ii) Recommend the possible actions to be taken in dealing with this ethical dilemma. (4 marks)

 

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  • 10 Marks

CR – July 2023 – L3 – Q3b – Regulatory framework and ethics

Identify ethical issues in financial statement adjustments and recommend actions for the new Finance Director to address these breaches.

b) Axim Manufacturing plc has just employed Mr. Kennedy Owusu as the Finance Director of the company. The previous Finance Director, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye, completed the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 before he left. The Auditors of the company are also done with the audit of the financial statement for the year, expressing an unmodified opinion on the accounts. Mr. Ebenezer Anokye is loved by the General staff, Management members and the Board of Directors for his ability in making the organisation profitable over the years, and “guaranteeing” increased end-of-year bonus payments to staff, as a consequence.

Mr. Kennedy Owusu wanted to familiarise himself with the operations of the company, and therefore decided to go through the financial statements for the previous year. He is dismayed to find several errors in the financial statements. The previous Finance Director, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye, passed several adjusting entries in January, 2022 to reflect in the 2021 financial statements. In one of such instances, Mr. Ebenezer Anokye recognised revenue on a large order received on December 28, 2021 but shipped on January 3, 2022. The narration or explanation given to this adjusting entry is, “omission of previous year sales, now recorded”.

Also, purchase of inventory in October 2021, which was fully sold by the end of the year had been recognised in January 2022. Finally, depreciation expense had been reduced by GH¢230,000. All these adjustments were designed to increase profit after tax or earnings per share, culminating in increased bonus payment to Management and the General staff.

Required:

i) Identify the ethical issues involved in the adjustments made by Mr. Ebenezer Anokye.

(5 marks)

ii) Recommend the possible actions that Mr. Kennedy Owusu, the new Finance Director, should take to resolve the ethical breaches and to reverse the wrong accounting treatments. (5 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

CR – Dec 2022 – L3 – Q3c – Regulatory Framework and Ethics

Address ethical issues surrounding special treatment of a cashier at Salisu Medical Centre and propose remedies.

Salisu Medical Centre runs 24-hour services every day. To ensure smooth cash collection from walk-in clients, the company also operates a 24-hour cash office. The cashiers work on a shift basis to cover the morning, afternoon, evening, and night services. There are five (5) cashiers employed by the firm, who are all supposed to work at least once in each of the shift periods before the year ends. Jennifer, one of the cashiers, has never worked on night duties since she was employed. The Finance Director of the company prepares the duty roster (time-schedule) for the cashiers’ shifts together with the Chief Cashier.

Jennifer’s special treatment has been continuously justified by the Finance Director due to her place of abode being far from the workplace. However, there are other cashiers who come on night-shift staying in her vicinity.

Jennifer is also known in the company for her frequent “excuse” duty from Doctors at the medical centre, allowing her to stay away from work, as well as her spontaneous use of annual leave days, sometimes obtaining additional casual leave. This behavior of Jennifer continuously affects workflow at the Cash Office, leading to another cashier being called to stand in for her, resulting in overtime payments for that cashier.

The conduct of Jennifer and the manner in which the Finance Director handles her case has caused concern among the other cashiers.

Required:

i) Describe the ethical issues involved and their implications on work output at Salisu Medical Centre.
(4 marks)

ii) Recommend possible measures that could be instituted to prevent such ethical challenges in the future.
(6 marks)

(Total: 10 marks)

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  • 10 Marks

AAA – Nov 2019 – L3 – Q1a – Rules of professional conduct, Professional responsibility and liability

Discusses the importance of integrity in professional relationships and evaluates the ethical and professional behavior issues in audit practice.

a) Asumasi Opoku has recently been appointed as a partner of Offei-Ansah & Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants. He has been a close friend of the Engagement Partner (EP), the firm’s managing partner for many years. Asumasi was previously the training manager in the firm and he has now been asked to act as training partner. This is the first time Offei-Ansah & Co have designated a particular partner as having responsibility for training.

One of the audit trainees, Ellen Danso, noted that she was disturbed by something that had happened on an audit of a company called Bremang Ltd, a medium-sized family-run business and longstanding client of Offei-Ansah & Co.

Ellen was auditing purchases of non-current assets when she noticed a transaction that she thought might be suspicious. There was a charge of GH¢125,000 (an individually material amount) for a Power Plant for an address in a rural area (no electricity) with no obvious link to the company. When she asked Bremang’s financial controller about the matter, she was told it referred to the installation of such a plant in a house owned by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This was to facilitate excellent communications and interaction with the CEO especially during the last quarter of the year when he liked to reside there with his family. She further explained that part of the cost was attributed to having to pay for a personal broadband connection since the house was in an isolated area where normal broadband connections were unavailable.

The financial controller appeared surprised and even irritated by the queries about the matter and said that auditors had not previously been concerned about the company being charged for non-current assets and operational expenses at properties owned by the CEO.

The engagement partner on the assignment happened to be the managing partner. Ellen told him what she had found and the Engagement Partner simply said that the charge could probably be ignored. He did, however, say that he would include a reference to the matter in the written representations letter required by ISA 580: Written Representations adding with a smile that “paper never refused ink”. About two months later, Ellen looked at the completed files and the letter of representation in which there was no reference to the matter.

When Asumasi Opoku heard about Ellen’s concerns, he realised that there was an ethical issue. At the very least the transaction should have been disclosed as a related party transaction under IAS 24: Related Party Disclosures but the situation was made more complicated by the fact that the Engagement Partner was (for all practical purposes) still Asumasi’s boss in Offei-Ansah & Co.

Required:

i) Explain TWO (2) reasons why integrity in professional relationships such as those described in the above scenario is vital. (2 marks)

ii) Evaluate FOUR (4) ethical and professional behavior issues relating to the stance of the Engagement Partner. (8 marks)

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