Report digest management audit Department of Human Services' Early Intervention Program /

"The audit was conducted pursuant to Legislative Audit Commission Resolution Number 122, which was adopted on June 26, 2001. This audit was conducted in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards and the audit standards promulgated by the Office of the Auditor General at 74 Ill. Adm. Code-420-310. The audit report is transmitted in conformance with Section 3-14 of the Illinois State Auditing Act."--Cover letter.

Executive characteristics and going concern opinions

Auditors have come under increased scrutiny over the past several years about the growing number of client failures without a warning in the form of a going-concern modified (GCM) audit opinion. Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 requires auditors to evaluate whether substantial doubt exists on an audit client’s ability to continue as a going concern (AICPA 1988). My dissertation consists of three essays. ^ For the three essays, I empirically investigate issues related to GCM audit opinions and executive characteristics. Specifically, I examine the impact of executive tenure and gender on the issuance of GCM audit opinions. In addition, my dissertation addresses two other unique issues. Given that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act represents an important watershed event in the history and regulation of the accounting profession, I provide evidence about auditors’ propensities to issue GCM audit opinions in the post-SOX period. Further, I also expand extant research in this area by using multiple outcomes and thus go beyond the traditional use of bankruptcy alone as a tool to evaluate auditors’ GCM opinion. ^ The results indicate that, after controlling for other financial characteristics, GCM audit opinions are significantly more likely for firms that have CFOs with short tenure and/or for firms with a female CFO or CEO. However, when examining the association between executive characteristics and two types of reporting errors, the results vary with the type of reporting error. Overall, the results provide evidence that executive characteristics are associated with auditors' reporting decisions. ^

Executive Characteristics and Going Concern Opinions

Auditors have come under increased scrutiny over the past several years about the growing number of client failures without a warning in the form of a going-concern modified (GCM) audit opinion. Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 requires auditors to evaluate whether substantial doubt exists on an audit client’s ability to continue as a going concern (AICPA 1988). My dissertation consists of three essays. For the three essays, I empirically investigate issues related to GCM audit opinions and executive characteristics. Specifically, I examine the impact of executive tenure and gender on the issuance of GCM audit opinions. In addition, my dissertation addresses two other unique issues. Given that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act represents an important watershed event in the history and regulation of the accounting profession, I provide evidence about auditors’ propensities to issue GCM audit opinions in the post-SOX period. Further, I also expand extant research in this area by using multiple outcomes and thus go beyond the traditional use of bankruptcy alone as a tool to evaluate auditors’ GCM opinion. The results indicate that, after controlling for other financial characteristics, GCM audit opinions are significantly more likely for firms that have CFOs with short tenure and/or for firms with a female CFO or CEO. However, when examining the association between executive characteristics and two types of reporting errors, the results vary with the type of reporting error. Overall, the results provide evidence that executive characteristics are associated with auditors' reporting decisions.

Manual para la aplicación de las normas y procedimientos de auditoría de cumplimiento de obligaciones tributarias aplicables en la auditoría fiscal.

Toda profesión debe establecer las más altas normas de calidad en el ejercicio de su trabajo, ya que personas incapacitadas para juzgarlo por sí mismas confían en él, a veces con consecuencias irreparables. Es evidentemente imposible (e indeseable) relevar al contador de su responsabilidad profesional estableciendo reglas detalladas de conducta, ya que la responsabilidad profesional es una de las cualidades que las normas mismas deben salvaguardar, por lo que éstas deben ser cuidadosamente definidas y clasificadas para que sirvan como la guía más clara y útil al auditor en el desarrollo de su trabajo diario. La pugna entre el ejercicio de la responsabilidad profesional individual y la aplicación de regla específica de conducta se presenta en cada aspecto de la contabilidad y de la auditoria, la solución es clara en los extremos: por un lado, el contador no puede renunciar a sus responsabilidad profesional y, por otro, es imposible dictar reglas que cubran todas las circunstancias posibles, la tensión entre estos extremos crea controversia y ansiedad; el problema está en dictaminar cuánta uniformidad y rigidez se puede establecer mediante los principios de contabilidad, y qué tanta flexibilidad puede dejarse al juicio personal; o hasta qué grado debe definirse detalladamente el alcance de las pruebas y los procedimientos de auditoria, y hasta qué limite debe dejarse al juicio pragmático del auditor, etc. Aunque el punto específico de discusión cambie de tiempo en tiempo, es probable que nunca se dé por concluida esta polémica. Los miembros del Instituto Americano de Contadores Públicos (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) han adoptado oficialmente 10 requisitos básicos conocidos en conjunto como “Normas de Auditoria Generalmente Aceptadas”. Estas normas se ampliaron a principios de 1973 en el boletín Nº 1 del Pronunciamiento de las normas de auditoria Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) llamado “Codificación de las Normas y Procedimientos de Auditoria”. La solidez y utilidad de las normas han quedado demostradas por su permanencia: 9 de ellas fueron originalmente adoptadas en 1948 y desde entonces básicamente no han cambiado (aunque ha tomado mucho tiempo entender algunas de ellas), la décima fue adoptada unos años después, aunque el principio básico que la rige existe desde entonces y quizá desde antes. Sin embargo, no existía ningún tipo de normativa definida mediante la cual el auditor pueda definir su responsabilidad como auditor fiscal, y que a la vez lo oriente a dictaminar con apego a las Normas de Auditoria Generalmente Aceptadas. Los procedimientos que en nuestro trabajo se adopta nos permitieron determinar los métodos más adecuados para llevar a cabo los exámenes de auditoría fiscal ejecutados por el auditor Fiscal Independiente, del contribuyente sobre la base de las leyes tributarias y a la generación de la documentación respectiva que ampare la evaluación del control interno. Por lo que el presente trabajo está enfocado a la práctica de la Auditaría Fiscal, específicamente en la observancia de la Norma de Cumplimiento de Obligaciones Tributarias y la elaboración de un documento que sirva de guía para su aplicación en concordancia con los procedimientos de este tipo de auditoría, que será de gran ayuda al contador público. Considerando que en el país no existe suficiente bibliografía especializada de la auditoría fiscal, se ha elaborado el presente trabajo para profundizar en el aspecto técnico, como un aporte en la materia. Se considera de utilidad social debido a que la aplicación de la norma dará validez y profesionalismo a su trabajo, el trabajo pretende diseñar métodos, procedimientos y cuestionarios de control interno con enfoque al cumplimiento de la norma, que pueda aplicarse y adaptarse a todo tipo de empresa. Esto le otorga a la presente investigación una gran importancia por su aporte a la comunidad de contadores públicos, ya que este tema ha sido tratado en forma mínima.

Quality Assurance Standards for Symptomatic Breast Disease Services

Quality Assurance Standards for Symptomatic Breast Disease Services People in Ireland have a right to expect that medical care be of good quality. They expect that standards of care are consistently high. They expect that access to care is easy, speedy, effective and efficient. Society expects quality of care to measure up to international norms of good practice. Such assurance can be given by auditing the quality of activity. Click here to download PDF 606kb

An essay about the effect of vague accounting standards on the decision making process of auditors

Vague words and expressions are present throughout the standards that comprise the accounting and auditing professions. Vagueness is considered to be a significant source of inexactness in many accounting decision problems and many authors have argued that the neglect of this issue may cause accounting information to be less useful. On the other hand, we can assume that the use of vague terms in accounting standards is inherent to principle based standards (different from rule based standards) and that to avoid vague terms, standard setters would have to incur excessive transaction costs. Auditors are required to exercise their own professional judgment throughout the audit process and it has been argued that the inherent vagueness in accounting standards may influence their decision making processes. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the decision making process of auditors and to investigate whether vague accounting standards create a problem for the decision making process of auditors, or lead to a better outcome. This paper makes the argument that vague standards prompt the use of System 2 type processing by auditors, allowing more comprehensive analytical thinking; therefore, reducing the biases associated with System 1 heuristic processing. If our argument is valid, the repercussions of vague accounting standards are not as negative as presented in previous literature, instead they are positive.

Introducing international accounting standards to an emerging capital market: relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets.

Introducing International Accounting Standards to an emerging capital market:Relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Addressing the theory practice gap in nurse education: evaluating teaching through audit against NMC standards and final management placement

Introduction
This paper outlines an innovative approach to auditing and evaluating the content of a management and leadership module for undergraduate nursing students after their final management clinical placement. Normally evaluations of teaching in a module take place at the end of a teaching module and therefore do not properly reflect the value of the teaching in relation to practical clinical experience.
Aim
This audit and evaluation sought to explore both the practical value of the teaching and learning, and also the degree to which it the teaching reflected against the NMC Standards of Education and Learning (2010 domain 3).
Methods
Having piloted the evaluative tool with an earlier cohort of nursing students, this evaluation explored both a quantitative assessment employing a Personal Response System (n =172), together with a qualitative dimension (n=116), thus delivering paper-based comments and reflections from students on the value and practicality of the module teaching theory to their final clinical management experience. The quantitative audit data were analysed for frequencies and cross tabulation and the qualitative audit data were thematically analysed.
Results
Results suggest a significant proportion of the students, appreciated the quality of the standard of teaching, but more importantly, ‘valued or highly valued’ the teaching and learning in relation to how it helped to significantly inform their management placement experience. A smaller proportion of the students underlined limitations and areas in which further improvement can be made in teaching and learning to the module.
Conclusion
Significantly positive evaluation by the students of the practical value of teaching and learning, to the theoretical management module. This has proved a useful auditing approach in assessing the theoretical teaching to student’s Level 3 clinical experience, and facilitated significant recommendations as far as developing the teaching and learning to better reflect the practice needs of nursing students

Evaluation of a versatile energy auditing tool

Energy auditing can be an important contribution for identification and assessment of energy conservation measures (ECMs) in buildings. Numerous tools and software have been developed, with varying degree of precision and complexity and different areas of use.   This paper evaluates PHPP as a versatile, easy-to-use energy auditing tool and gives examples of how it has been compared to a dynamic simulation tool, within the EU-project iNSPiRe. PHPP is a monthly balance energy calculation tool based on EN13790. It is intended for assisting the design of Passive Houses and energy renovation projects and as guidance in the choice of appropriate ECMs.   PHPP was compared against the transient simulation software TRNSYS for a single family house and a multi-family house. It should be mentioned that dynamic building simulations might strongly depend on the model assumptions and simplifications compared to reality, such as ideal heating or real heat emission system. Setting common boundary conditions for both PHPP and TRNSYS, the ideal heating and cooling loads and demands were compared on monthly and annual basis for seven European locations and buildings with different floor area, S/V ratio, U-values and glazed area of the external walls.   The results show that PHPP can be used to assess the heating demand of single-zone buildings and the reduction of heating demand with ECMs with good precision. The estimation of cooling demand is also acceptable if an appropriate shading factor is applied in PHPP. In general, PHPP intentionally overestimates heating and cooling loads, to be on the safe side for system sizing. Overall, the agreement with TRNSYS is better in cases with higher quality of the envelope as in cold climates and for good energy standards. As an energy auditing tool intended for pre-design it is a good, versatile and easy-to-use alternative to more complex simulation tools.

Feasibility of using solid sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry for preparation of spiked filter papers with Cu and Zn as standards for direct solid analysis

An approach was developed for the preparation of cryogenic ground spiked filter papers with Cu and Zn for use as synthetic calibrating standards for direct solid microanalysis. Solid sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used to evaluate the microhomogeneity and to check the applicability of the synthetic calibrating standards for the direct determination of Cu and Zn in vegetable certified reference materials. The found concentrations presented no statistical differences at the 95% confidence level. The homogeneity factors ranged from 2.7 to 4.2 for Cu and from 6.4 to 11.5 for Zn.

Developing and implementing an open and non-proprietary device description for FOUNDATION fieldbus based on software standards

Support for interoperability and interchangeability of software components which are part of a fieldbus automation system relies on the definition of open architectures, most of them involving proprietary technologies. Concurrently, standard, open and non-proprietary technologies, such as XML, SOAP, Web Services and the like, have greatly evolved and been diffused in the computing area. This article presents a FOUNDATION fieldbus (TM) device description technology named Open-EDD, based on XML and other related technologies (XLST, DOM using Xerces implementation, OO, XMIL Schema), proposing an open and nonproprietary alternative to the EDD (Electronic Device Description). This initial proposal includes defining Open-EDDML as the programming language of the technology in the FOUNDATION fieldbus (TM) protocol, implementing a compiler and a parser, and finally, integrating and testing the new technology using field devices and a commercial fieldbus configurator. This study attests that this new technology is feasible and can be applied to other configurators or HMI applications used in fieldbus automation systems. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Forest certification in Amazonia: standards matter

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification promises international consumers that `green-label` timber has been logged sustainably. However, recent research indicates that this is not true for ipe (Tabebuia spp.), currently flooding the US residential decking market, much of it logged in Brazil. Uneven or non-application of minimum technical standards for certification could undermine added value and eventually the certification process itself. We examine public summary reports by third-party certifiers describing the evaluation process for certified companies in the Brazilian Amazon to determine the extent to which standards are uniformly applied and the degree to which third-party certifier requirements for compliance are consistent among properties. Current best-practice harvest systems, combined with Brazilian legal norms for harvest levels, guarantee that no certified company or community complies with FSC criteria and indicators specifying species-level management. No guidelines indicate which criteria and indicators must be enforced, or to what degree, for certification to be conferred by third-party assessors; nor do objective guidelines exist for evaluating compliance for criteria and indicators for which adequate scientific information is not yet available to identify acceptable levels. Meanwhile, certified companies are expected to monitor the long-term impacts of logging on biodiversity in addition to conducting best-practice forest management. This burden should reside elsewhere. We recommend a clarification of `sustained timber yield` that reflects current state of knowledge and practice in Amazonia. Quantifiable verifiers for best-practice forest management must be developed and consistently employed. These will need to be flexible to reflect the diversity in forest structure and dynamics that prevails across this vast region. We offer suggestions for how to achieve these goals.

Mental health nursing standards and practice indicators for Australia: a review of current literature

There are many changes and challenges facing the mental health care professional working in Australia in the 21st Century. Given the significance of their number and the considerable extent to which care is delivered by them, mental health nurses in particular must be at the forefront of the movement to enhance and improve mental health care. Mental health nurses in Australia must not only keep up with the changes, we should be setting the pace for others across the profession worldwide. The increasingly complex field of mental health nursing demands nurses who are not only equipped to face the challenges but are confident in doing so. Definitive guidelines for practice, clear expectations regarding outcomes and specific means by which to evaluate both practice and outcomes are vital. Strengthening the role and vision of mental health nursing so that there is clarity about both and highlighting core values by which to perform will enable us to become focused on our future and what we can expect to both give to and receive from our chosen profession and how we can, and do, contribute to mental health care. The role of the mental health nurse is undergoing expansion and there are new hurdles to overcome along with the new benefits this brings. To support this, nationally adopted, formalised standards of practice and means by which to measure these, i.e., practice indicators formerly known as clinical indicators, are required. It is important to have national standards and practice indicators because of the variances in the provision of mental health across Australia – different legislation regarding mental health policies and processes, different nursing registration bodies and Nursing Councils, for example – which create additional barriers to cohesion and uniformity. Improvements in the practice of mental health nursing lead to benefits for consumer outcomes as well as the overall quality of mental health care available in Australia. The emphasis on rights-based care, particularly consumer and carer rights, demands evidence-based, up-to-date mental health care delivered by competent, capable professionals. Documented expectations for performance by nurses will provide all involved with yardsticks by which to evaluate outcomes. Flowing on from these benefits are advances in mental health care generally and enhancements to Australia’s reputation and position within the health care arena throughout the world. Currently, the ‘Standards for Practice’ published by the Australian New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses (ANZCMHN) in 1995 and the practice indicators developed by Skews et al. (2000) provide a less formal guide for mental health nurses working in Australia. While these earlier standards and practice indicators have played some role in supporting mental health nurses they have not been nationally or enthusiastically adopted and there are a multitude of reasons for this. This report reviews the current literature available on practice indicators and standards for practice and describes an evidence-based rationale as to why a review and renewal of these is required and why it is important, not just for mental health nurses but to the field of mental health in general. The term ‘practice indicator’ is used, except where a quotation utilises ‘clinical indicator’, to more accurately reflect the broad spectrum of nursing roles, i.e. not all mental health nursing work involves a clinical role.

Estimating the cost of contact for non-resident parents: A budget standards approach

Most Western countries have, for some time, provided income support and/or taxation relief to parents with children in their care. The significant amount of research into the costs of children to couple and sole parent households has been important in assessing and developing family support policies. Changing societal expectations about the level of involvement of fathers in child rearing activities has highlighted the need to understand the costs facing usually male non-resident parents in having contact with their children. The budget standards methodology is used in this paper to estimate the costs for non-resident parents exercising regular contact with their children. Costs of contact are found to be high. For contact with one child for 20 per cent of the year, costs of contact represent about 40 per cent of the costs of that same child in an intact couple household with a medium income and more than half of the costs of that child in a household with low income. Household infrastructure and transportation is the reason for high costs. One implication of this finding is that the total cost of children substantially increases when parents separate. The article discusses some policy implications of these findings. This research is of relevance to social security, taxation, family law and child support policies and administration.