The focus of this research was on the Management of Whistle-Blowing at the University of South Africa (UNISA). This study investigated the perception of UNISA staff on the issue of whistle-blowing. Using a quantitative approach, a questionnaire was used to obtain relevant information from permanent employees of UNISA, at all campuses and regions, regarding the issue of whistle-blowing. This study highlights the attitudes and opinions of permanent employees of UNISA regarding the issue of whistle-blowing, and whether or not these attitude and opinions can influence the effectiveness of whistle-blowing, as a crime and unethical conduct deterrent and detection mechanism. Several issues were investigated in this study, as whistle-blowing if implemented and managed correctly, can be a valuable source of intelligence on crime and unethical conduct in the workplace. / CRIMINOLOGY / MA (POLICE SCIENCE)

The objective of this thesis is to describe and examine the current state of research and knowledge on performance auditing and performance reporting, and how these two components of performance management can be applied in the public sector in South Africa, and, at the same time, be in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act. The roles and responsibilities and supporting mechanisms available for implementation are reflected on and the application in national departments in South Africa is analysed. The analysis demonstrates that limited performance audits are conducted and reported on in the annual report. Although there has been a continuous improvement in performance reporting major shortcomings identified by the Auditor-General SA include the lack of sufficient supporting evidence and non-alignment between the planning, budgeting and actual reporting information. Accounting officers made reference to performance information in their reports but the content differed and audit committees also adopt various practices. Challenges include the lack of standards, support and incentives or sanctions for poor reporting. The study concludes with recommendations and suggestion for future research. / Auditing / M. Com. (Auditing)

The study focused on the challenges facing school governing bodies in the Vhembe district in the implementation of finance policies. Through the provision of the South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996, the school governing body is entrusted with the responsibilities of establishing and managing the school fund. The research was a multi-site case study of the Vhembe district. Purposive sampling of schools was conducted. Semi-structured interviews, observations and document analyses were carried out. The findings suggest that the finance personnel and committees at school level were not well established, trained and thus became dysfunctional. The researcher recommends that finance policies should be amended, finance committees trained and continuous monitoring of finances provided by the circuit and district officials. The study was also characterized by a number of limitations, including difficulties in understanding financial terminology by some participants and fear of handing in financial documents for examination. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Proper records management plays a significant role in the auditing process, risk management and wider corporate governance. Despite this role, in South Africa, many governmental bodies are issued with disclaimer reports every year by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) due to a lack of supporting documentation. This problem is exacerbated by the exclusion of records management from the criteria for a sound financial management infrastructure in many governmental bodies. The other dilemma is that some records such as financial records, personnel records and electronic records usually fall outside the jurisdiction of the organisation’s records manager. Utilising the King Report III as a framework, this study sought to develop a framework to embed records management practices into the auditing process in the public sector of South Africa, with a view to entrench a culture of clean audits. The study relied on mixed methods research (MMR), with the quantitative study conducted first through informetrics analysis of audit reports, while the qualitative paradigm was used to substantiate numerical data. Data collection adopted a multi-approach with four key sources of data: a questionnaire, interviews, literature review and publicly available data from the consolidated general reports of AGSA. The study revealed that most governmental bodies have established internal audit units, audit committees and records management units, which did not work in unison. In most governmental bodies records management did not form part of the audit scope and records management professionals were not part of the audit committees. As a result, most governmental bodies continued to receive negative audit opinions from AGSA. The study recommends that records management community should utilise auditing and risk management as a springboard to propel records management to the new heights. A further empirical study on the role of auditing and risk management in records management that embraces both the private and public sectors is recommended. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

The overall purpose of this study is to establish whether auditors in South Africa also fail to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption underlying financial statements the reasons for auditors' failure to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption The hypotheses of this study are tested by examining professional auditing standards and secondary data on the going concern assumption conducting an empirical study of listed industrial compames whose listings were terminated because of financial failure This study provides evidence that auditors in South Africa fail to Issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption advances specific reasons for this failure / Auditing / M. Comm. (Auditing)

The broad aim of this research was to assess the decision-usefulness of environmental reports produced by South African companies that are listed on the Johanessburg Securities Exchange (JSE) to users of the reports. The study was motivated by a lack of research on the decision-usefulness of environmental reports in South Africa. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase in form of a content analysis evaluated the decision-usefulness of the environmental reports of top 100 JSE-listed South African companies using a control list and a judgement scale. The second phase in form of a questionnaire survey was aimed at determining, the information needs of users of environmental reports produced by South African companies (that are listed on the JSE), the extent to which they read and employ the reports for making decisions. In addition, this phase was meant to ascertain the degree of users' satisfaction with the decision-usefulness of the environmental reports as well as elicit their suggestions on ways of improving the reports. Furthermore, the second phase was aimed at determining the users’ perception of the relative importance of environmental reports as well as ascertaining whether there was an expectation gap between the users and the preparers of the reports with regard to their decision-usefulness. The results of the content analysis phase of the study indicate that the environmental reports of the sampled companies were decision-useful, however their decision-usefulness varied widely. Although decision-useful, the environmental reports of the sampled companies were not comparable. In addition, the environmental reports of companies from sectors with a significant impact on the environment, and those of large companies were more decision-useful than the reports of companies from sectors with an insignificant impact on the environment and those of smaller companies. The results of the questionnaire survey phase of the study indicate that users prefer balanced environmental reports that disclose both negative and positive aspects that identify and describe key relevant issues, that are specific and contain accurate information, and that provide future oriented information. In addition, users prefer environmental reports that identify and address key stakeholders and their concerns, demonstrate the integration of environmental issues into core business processes, and that compare quantitative impacts against best practice. Furthermore, the results also indicate that users do read environmental reports, mostly from companies’ websites Portable Document Format (PDF) annual reports and that they mostly use the environmental reports for research, their own knowledge, and to hold companies accountable. However, users are not fully satisfied with the decision-usefulness of the environmental reports as they feel that there is a need to improve the reports in order to make them more decision-useful. The results also indicate that users perceive environmental reports to be more important than any other type of reports, most notably the financial reports. Comparing the responses of the users to those of preparers on various issues pertaining to the decision-usefulness of environmental reports, significant differences were found between the views of the two groups. These differences provide ample evidence that is consistent with the existence of an environmental reporting expectation gap in South Africa. This study makes several original contributions to environmental reporting literature, most notable of which is that, it is the first study in the South African context to empirically evaluate the quality (decision-usefulness) of environmental reports in line with the accounting conceptual frameworks and the GRI guidelines combined. By so doing, the study introduces to the academic literature an extensive five dimensional qualitative characteristic framework for evaluating the quality (decision-usefulness) of environmental reports. In addition, the study uniquely employs the decision-usefulness theory to provide insights into the environmental reporting practices of South African companies that are listed on the JSE. In so doing, it re-contextualises the theory that is typically employed in explaining financial reporting, and demonstrates its applicability in explaining the decision-usefulness of the environmental reporting practices of South African companies that are listed on the JSE. / Accounting / D. Com. (Accounting)

Thesis (LLM (Mercantile Law))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The worldwide increase of corporate failures on the scale of Enron and WorldCom has sparked a renewed international trend of corporate governance review. With the external company auditor blamed at least in part for many corporate failures, corporate governance reform also necessitates a review of the statutory regulation of the company auditor. In particular, the lack of auditor independence when auditing clients has been under the legislator’s spotlight. The problems associated with unregulated or poorly regulated auditors are well illustrated by the activities of auditing giant Arthur Andersen. In the US, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been promulgated in reaction to corporate failures, imposing many new legislative restrictions on the auditor. The UK has a more tempered, selfregulatory approach. South Africa, following international trends with its recently promulgated Auditing Profession Act and Corporate Laws Amendment Act, has also greatly increased the regulation of auditor independence. The question is now whether these new restrictions in the wake of corporate failures have been the right approach with which to prevent future failures and to provide adequate protection to shareholders. Although the general legislative increase in auditor awareness is welcomed, the efficacy of several provisions in South African legislation can be questioned. Widespread reform has taken place in the appointment and remuneration of the auditor, which now has to be independently determined by the audit committee. In particular, South Africa’s new regulation of non-audit services, and the lack of refined regulation on compulsory auditor rotation as well as the cross-employment of auditors by clients, needs a critical discussion. It is submitted that the discretion of a well-regulated audit committee, combined with increased disclosure and transparency, should be enough to regulate most of the key aspects of auditor independence. Care should be taken to not overlegislate in haste to reform. South Africa needs a flexible and customised approach in this regard.

[pt] A auditoria e o monitoramento contínuo visam melhorar a eficiência das operações na empresa, identificando e avaliando riscos de maneira tempestiva e provendo rapidamente informações críticas à alta administração para uma melhor tomada de decisão. Mediante a adoção de ferramentas de controle incorporadas aos sistemas de informação ou a utilização de softwares apropriados, a auditoria e o monitoramento contínuo propiciam o acompanhamento em tempo real dos processos empresariais. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal desenvolver e aplicar em uma empresa do setor elétrico brasileiro uma metodologia para estabelecer e hierarquizar regras de monitoramento de processos de negócio, na perspectiva de implementação futura de uma plataforma tecnológica de auditoria contínua. Mais especificamente, a metodologia compreende a seleção dos processos auditáveis com maior exposição ao risco; identificação de eventos de risco associados a esses processos; e estabelecimento e hierarquização de regras de monitoramento propriamente ditas. A pesquisa pode ser considerada aplicada, descritiva e participativa e teve como estratégia principal a adoção do método de estudo de caso, com a realização de oficinas de trabalho para a coleta de dados primários. Destacam-se como resultados: (i) a revisão crítica da literatura existente sobre auditoria contínua; (ii) uma metodologia para estabelecer e hierarquizar regras de monitoramento associadas a processos de maior exposição a risco para fins do projeto de auditoria continua em uma empresa do setor elétrico brasileiro; e (iii) demonstração da aplicabilidade e efetividade da metodologia proposta, conforme descrito no estudo de caso. / [en] Continuous monitoring and audit aim at improving the efficiency of operations at the company, identifying and timely assessing risks for providing critical information to senior management for better decision-making processes. By adopting control tools embedded in company s information systems or by using specialized software, continuous monitoring and audit provide real-time assessment of business processes. This dissertation aims to develop and apply in a Brazilian power energy company a methodology for establishing and hierarchizing monitoring rules for the purpose of continuous monitoring and audit. The proposed methodology encompasses selection of business processes with greater exposure to risk; identification of risk events associated with those processes; and establishment of monitoring rules themselves. This research can be classified as applied, descriptive, methodological and participatory. Its methodological approach includes the development of a case study and workshops for collecting primary data. The main results can be summarized as follows: (i) critical review of existing literature on continuous audit; (ii) a methodology designed for establishing and hierarchizing monitoring rules with the purpose of continuous monitoring and audit at a Brazilian power energy company selected for this research; and (iii) demonstration of the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology according to the results presents in the case study.

The thesis processes the auditor’s role and whether it can constrain possible earnings management in smaller Swedish private corporates. The removed auditing obligation that was abolished in Sweden 2010 with the reason to reduce the administrative burden faced by smaller corporates, contributed to an important discussion regarding the auditor’s actual importance. In addition, the corporate tax in Sweden was significantly reduced from 26.3 percent to 22 percent, which gave Swedish corporates incentives to reduce their earnings before the tax reduction, and therefore pay less taxes. This phenomenon is used in the thesis as an excellent opportunity to measure earnings management since there were significantly strong incentives for corporates to manipulate their earnings at that time. The thesis aims to increase understanding among these corporates accounting, and whether the auditor can strengthen the accounting- and audit quality, and therefore constrain earnings management. Through the use of a quantitative method where statistical tests have been performed on underlying data gathered from the corporates annual reports, the thesis research question has been answered. The formulation of the research questions is “Does the degree of earnings management differ between audited and unaudited corporates?”, which has been investigated by measuring the degree of earnings management through unexpected accruals, but also through SG&A cost stickiness. Furthermore, the thesis aims to provide the research area with arguments regarding the appropriateness of the audit exemption. The result obtained in the thesis indicates that audited corporates have less negative unexpected accruals, and hence a minor degree of earnings management in comparison with unaudited corporates. However, no significance is shown in the result, at a five percent significance level, which means that it’s not possible to say with certainty that there’s a difference between these two groups in terms of negative unexpected accruals. Instead, there is evidence that there’s a significant difference between audited and unaudited corporates in terms of cost stickiness, where unaudited corporates showed more cost stickiness and thus also a higher degree of earnings management. With an additional test the thesis also demonstrates that there are corporates that don’t follow the Swedish laws regarding audit exemption. This is when it’s discovered that there are corporates that aren’t covered by the audit exemption, and thus don’t meet the required limits, but still don’t provide an auditor. These corporates also prove to have a higher degree of earnings management since the thesis received a significant result in terms of negative unexpected accruals. To sum up, the thesis highlights that the auditor’s role is of great importance in several aspects, and for this reason there are motives for legislators to review the audit exemption in Sweden.

De nos jours, les technologies de l'information offrent aux utilisateurs la possibilité de travailler avec n'importe qui, à n'importe quel moment, de n'importe où et avec plusieurs dispositifs hétérogènes. Cette évolution favorise un nouveau modèle distribué de collaboration de confiance où les utilisateurs peuvent travailler sur des documents partagés avec qui ils ont confiance. La collaboration multi-synchrone est largement utilisée pour soutenir le travail collaboratif en maintenant des flux simultanés de l'activité des utilisateurs qui divergent et convergent continuellement. Cependant, ce modèle n'offre pas de support concernant l'expression et la vérification de restriction d'usage des données. Cette thèse présente C-PPC, un modèle de collaboration basé sur les contrats et sur la confiance. Dans ce modèle, des contrats sont utilisés comme des règles d'utilisation des données et les utilisateurs collaborent en fonction des niveaux de confiance qu'ils attribuent aux autres en accord avec le respect des contrats. Nous formalisons les contrats en utilisant des concepts déontiques: permission, obligation et prohibition. Les contrats sont inclus dans les historiques d'opérations des données partagées. Le modèle C-PPC fournit un mécanisme pour la fusion des modifications des données et des contrats. N'importe quel utilisateur peut auditer les historiques à n'importe quel moment et les résultats de l'audit sont utilisés pour actualiser les niveaux de confiance en se basant sur une métrique de confiance. Nous proposons une solution reposant sur des authentificateurs basés sur les chaînes de hachage pour garantir l'intégrité des historiques et la responsabilité des utilisateurs. Nous fournissons des algorithmes pour construire les authentificateurs et vérifier les historiques puis nous prouvons leur correction. Des résultats expérimentaux montrent la faisabilité du modèle C-PPC / Nowadays, information technologies provide users ability to work with anyone, at any time, from everywhere and with several heterogeneous devices. This evolution fosters a new distributed trustworthy collaboration model where users can work on shared documents with whom they trust. Multi-synchronous collaboration is widely used for supporting collaborative work by maintaining simultaneous streams of user activities which continually diverge and converge. However, this model lacks support on how usage restrictions on data can be expressed and checked within the model. This thesis proposes "C-PPC", a multi-synchronous contract-based and trust-aware collaboration model. In this model, contracts are used as usage rules and users collaborate according to trust levels they have on others computed according to contract compliance. We formalize contracts by using deontic concepts: permission, obligation and prohibition. Contracts are enclosed in logs of operations over shared data. The C-PPC model provides a mechanism for merging data changes and contracts. Any user can audit logs at any time and auditing results are used to update user trust levels based on a trust metric. We propose a solution relying on hash-chain based authenticators that ensures integrity of logs and user accountability. We provide algorithms for constructing authenticators and verifying logs and prove their correctness. A set of experimental results shows the feasibility of the C-PPC model