MBA (ACCOUNTING SPECIALISATION)
Auditing and Ethics (MACC204)
Individual Assignment
Assignment Title: Research on current issues in auditing and assurance services
Assessment Weighting: 10%
Length of assignment paper: maximum 1,000 words.
Due Date: by midnight Sunday 23/4/2023 – assignment paper submission via Moodle
A. Assignment topic:
In this assignment, you are expected to do a research into issues currently reported by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) regarding its inspection program for 2021-2022, as described below:
In October 2022, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued its report 743 – Audit inspection program report (“The report”): 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. Based on the report, ASIC has identified some key audit areas that it found negative findings during its inspection (page 11), including: Revenue/Receivables, Impairment/Asset valuation, Investment/Financial Instrument, Loan/Borrowing, etc. (ASIC 2022).
For each of those key areas with negative findings above, the Report pointed out some matters contributing to the negative findings. For example, for Revenue/Receivables, the Report stated that
“Matters contributing to revenue and receivables negative findings in the 12 months to 30 June 2022 and the 12 months to 30 June 2021:
. Tests of details…
. Internal controls…
. Risk assessment…
. Accounting estimates…
. Accounting policies…
. Substantive analytical procedures…
. Others….”. (ASIC, 2022, page 12).
Required:
Choose any key audit areas (for example Revenue/Receivables, or Impairment/Asset valuation, or Investment/Financial Instrument, or Loan/Borrowing, etc.) as specified in the Report and:
- Critically evaluate the factors contributing to the negative findings stated in the Report.
- Propose actions by audit firms to improve audit quality in response to the factors contributing to the negative findings discussed.
Reference:
ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) 2022, Report 743 – Audit inspection program report 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022, Retrieved from https://download.asic.gov.au/media/up0fmjmy/rep743-published-28-october-2022.pdf
B. Marking criteria
There is 1 rubric at the end of this document.
C. Other issues
Extensions and late submissions
Please reread the section on extensions and late submission in the Unit Outline.
Plagiarism
Please reread the section on plagiarism in the Unit Outline.
Submission requirements
- Assignments must be submitted via the Moodle unit site through the ‘Assessments’ block.
- Keep a backup of your submission. If your assessment goes astray, for whatever reason, you will be required to reproduce it.
- Assignment must be accompanied by a cover page with your signatures. An assignment paper without any of those will NOT be marked.
- It is expected that all work submitted, will have been edited for spelling, grammar and clarity.
- Students are expected to use at least 5 references to support their evaluation and proposal, in order to achieve the best result.
- Students are expected to dig into the relevant literature to support their ideas/arguments/findings in the assignment. References are cited and presented correctly in accordance with the Victoria university Harvard referencing style.