Part A of this dissertation, represents the literature review and project outline for this study, and includes the definition of the research problem, aims, objectives and the proposed methodology. The literature review considers the emergence of environmental accounting and reporting in the context of the escalating environmental crisis. It reviews the role of accounting prior to the development of the concept of sustainable development, and subsequently focuses specifically on the rise to prominence of environmental reporting and accounting thereafter. It reviews major academic works in this field as well as major international guidelines, standards, protocols and charters on environmental reporting. In addition, the study also reviews the limitations and problems associated with traditional and environmental accounting, and environmental reporting. It proposes a framework that considers the forces influencing environmental reporting, and briefly examines the previous evidence of the contrasting attitudes and perceptions of both preparers and users of such environmental reports. Arising out of this literature review, a study was developed that would measure and compare the expectations of three key stakeholder groups with regard to environmental accounting and reporting, namely: • The companies responsible for preparation • Environmental professionals, who assist in the preparation of these reports or attest as to their validity, and • Environmental activists, pressure groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that rely on such reporting to assess the impact of a company's activities. The study would look at the perceived importance of environmental reports, the areas that are reported on, and the levels of disclosure. It would then contrast the expectations of the above three groups and compare these to the minimum reporting levels required by the only officially endorsed international reporting guideline in South Africa, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The second part of this dissertation (Part B), is presented in the form of a research paper, and is presented in the specific format required by the academic journal Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, a Wiley InterScience publication, to which it will be submitted for publication, (after final editing to reduce its overall length). This second part includes a brief review of key literature, the aims, objectives and hypothesis of the study. It then details the methodology and the findings, which are discussed in depth. These findings include significant differences that were found between the expectations of the three groups, and differences between these expectations and the reporting specifications of the GRI. The environmental activists and pressure groups were found to expect greater levels of disclosure than professional environmental consultants, who in turn expected higher levels of disclosure than companies and their representatives. There were also significant differences between the responses of the three groups with regards to the importance of specific areas of environmental disclosure. The responses were more skewed towards considering most specific areas of disclosure as very important or extremely important, by the environmental activists and pressure groups. This was more so than for the environmental professionals or company respondents who also considered most of these areas as important or very important. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Sustainable development is often described in three dimensions, namely social, environmental and economic. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is a management accounting approach which brings the environmental impact of the process to the attention of the stakeholders whilst also looking at the economic aspect so as to control costs. While EMA’s application has been adopted widely in developed countries, does the same apply in South Africa? Seeking to understand the level of current EMA being conducted at the corporate level will assist government and corporations in South Africa to understand the factors encouraging better accounting sustainability. The focus of this study was confined to leaders of organisations operating in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa. Quantitative research was conducted on 40 organisations that operated in KZN. The organisations sampled ranged from small to large enterprises, and operated in a number of different industries. The study centred on analysing the organisation’s attitude towards environmental sustainability, the types of EMA reports generated and reasons for or against using EMA. The research revealed that the attitude by each organisation towards environmental sustainability was vital in encouraging organisations to implement EMA as a method of controlling pollution. The majority of organisations had applied some form of EMA in their KZN organisation. A major finding was that for those who chose to apply EMA, their most important reason was to control costs better. The second reason for applying EMA was legislation. Planned implementation of EMA was analysed and a number of specific industries and sizes of industries were highlighted for their implementation of EMA or lack thereof. This research is useful to the reader as it has analysed the current application of EMA to encourage sustainable development, identify the general obstacles encountered to application of EMA and recommend strategies that can be employed to overcome them. These recommendations include government involvement through education programmes to improve the understanding and attitude towards EMA. Secondly, government should pass legislation making environmental reporting a compulsory disclosure for all organisations. Organisations themselves should use advanced computerised recording systems to develop their application of EMA. Larger businesses should encourage and assist smaller organisations in their supply chains to become more active in their own environmental protection. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

Bakgrund: Bristen på riktlinjer för väsentlighetsbedömning lämnar ett stort utrymme för revisorns professionella omdöme i väsentlighetsbedömningen. Revisorn måste använda sitt professionella omdöme vid väsentlighetsbedömningen, speciellt med hänseende till klientens branschtillhörighet, vilket ger upphov till inkonsekventa väsentlighetsbedömningar. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förklara hur revisorernas väsentlighetsbedömningar påverkas av klientens branschtillhörighet. Metod: Studien har ett positivitsikt synsätt och använder en kombinerad metod av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ metodik. Studien utförde för- och efterintervjuer samt en enkätundersökning. Datan samlades in via SurveyMonkey och hanterades samt analyserades i statistikprogrammet SPSS. Resultat och slutsats: Revisorernas professionella omdöme som används i väsentlighetsbedömningarna ger upphov till skillnader i väsentlighetsbedömningarna. Skillnaderna kan delvis förklaras av klientens branschtillhörighet eftersom det inte finns specifika riktlinjer för hur väsentlighetsbedömningarna ska utföras beroende på klientens branschtillhörighet. Resultatet visade att revisorerna inte lägger en lika stor vikt på samma komponenter i väsentlighetsbedömningen beroende på klientens branschtillhörighet. Studiens slutsats är att väsentlighetsbedömningen påverkas av klientens branschtillhörighet genom att revisorerna inte lägger en lika stor vikt på samma komponenter i väsentlighetsbedömningen i de undersökta branscherna. Studiens bidrag: Studien ämnar ge insikt i att förklara hur väsentlighetsbedömningen påverkas av klientens branschtillhörighet. Tidigare studier har inte undersökt variabler i faktorn bransch som påverkar väsentlighetsbedömningen, vilket denna studie har tagit hänsyn till. / Background: The lack of guidance on materiality assessments leaves a large space for the auditors’ professional judgment in assessing materiality. The auditor must use professional judgments on materiality assessments, especially with regard to the clients’ industry affiliation, giving rise to inconsistent materiality assessments. Aim: The aim of this study is to explain how the auditors’ materiality judgments are influenced by the clients’ industry affiliation. Method: The study uses a positivistic approach and uses a combined approach of both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The study used pre- and post interviews and a questionnaire survey. The data was collected via SurveyMonkey and handled and analyzed in SPSS. Result and conclusion: The auditors professional judgment used in materiality assessments give rise to differences in materiality assessments. The differences may be partly explained by the clients’ industry affiliation as there are no specific guidelines that cover materiality assessments specifically for clients with different industry affiliations. The result of this study showed that the auditors do not put an equal amount of importance on the same components of the assessment in regards to the clients’ industry affiliation. The study concludes that the assessment will be influenced by the clients’ industry affiliation since the auditor does not place as much importance on the same components of the materiality assessment in the surveyed industries. Contribution of the thesis: The study aims to provide insight to explain how the assessments will be influenced by the clients’ industry affiliation. Previous studies have not examined the variables in the factor industry that affect materiality assessment as this study has taken into account.

Bakgrund: 1 november 2010 avskaffades revisionsplikten för mindre företag i Sverige. Avskaffandet i Danmark och Storbritannien medförde problem för mindre företag att bli beviljade krediter hos bankerna. Därmed är det intressant att studera hur avskaffandet har påverkat kreditbedömningen av mindre företag i Sverige.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att studera vilka faktorer som har betydelse vid kreditgivning till mindre företag. Fokus ligger på hur tillförlitlig små respektive stora banker anser att en icke reviderad årsredovisning är jämfört med en reviderad årsredovisning eller om andra faktorer anses viktigare. Studien ska därmed underlätta för mindre företag som står inför beslutet att välja revision eller inte.Metod: Studien är genomförd ur en kvalitativ ansats där empirin samlats in genom semi-strukturerade besöksintervjuer. Det insamlade materialet har sedan jämförts och kopplats ihop med sekundärdata i form av vetenskapliga artiklar.Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att revisionen inte har någon betydelse vid kreditgivning så till vida att redovisningen är upprättad av kompetent personal. Istället är det förtroendet, som skapas genom relationer, som har den betydande rollen vid kreditgivning. Finns inget förtroende till företagaren är risken stor att bankerna väljer att avslå en kreditpropå. Studien visar också att inga skillnader råder mellan större respektive mindre banker. / Background: On November 1, 2010, the audit requirement for small businesses in Sweden was abolished. The abolition in Denmark and the UK caused problems for smaller businesses to get credit granted by banks. We wonder therefore how abolition has affected credit assessment of small businesses in Sweden.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the factors that are important in lending to small businesses. The focus is on how reliable small and large banks believe that a non-audited financial report is compared with an audited financial report or if other factors are considered more important. The essay should help smaller businesses who faced with the decision to choose audit or not.Method: The paper is written from a qualitative approach where the empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected materials were then compared, and paired with secondary data in the form of scientific articles.Conclusion: The study shows that the audit has no meaning when granting credits to the extent that accounting are prepared by competent persons. Instead, it's the trust that is created through relationships, which has the significant role in the granting of credit. Is there no confidence to the owner of the company, there is a risk that banks choose to reject a credit. The study also shows that no differences exist between small and large banks.

En revisor bidrar till att kvalitetssäkra den finansiella information företag lämnar ifrån sig och revision ses som en kvalitetsstämpel gentemot tredje part. När det inte längre är revisionsplikt för små bolag har konkurrensen hårdnat i revisionsbranschen. Revisionsbyråerna har därför tilltagit åtgärder så som marknadsföring för att behålla och attrahera nya klienter. Syftet med denna studie är att skapa förståelse för hur revisorer resonerar kring relationen till klienter och hur de upplever att den påverkas av de åtgärder som krävs för att behålla och attrahera klienter. Studien har fördjupats i tre begrepp som i sin tur är kopplade till teorier. Det studeras hur revisoryrket som profession, marknadsföring och oberoende påverkar klientrelationen och dessa stöds av agentteorin, professionsteorin och institutionell teori. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod där personliga intervjuer använts för att samla empiri från sex erfarna revisorer. Revisorerna lägger stor vikt vid att relationerna till klienterna är goda. Det är viktigt dels för att klienterna ska vara nöjda och stanna kvar, men även för att det är genom ryktesspridning revisorerna får flest nya klienter. Revisoryrket är en profession och revisorerna är medvetna om hur de uppträder såväl inom arbetet som utanför. Marknadsföring strider mot professionen men är något revisorer börjat använda sig av i större utsträckning. Revisionsbyråerna använder sig av varumärkesmarknadsföring medan revisorerna främst riktar in sig på personlig marknadsföring. Enligt lag måste revisorer vara oberoende gentemot sina klienter och detta är de noga med. Inget får hota deras oberoende eftersom det kan förstöra deras rykte som revisor. Slutsatsen är att revisorer värderar klientrelationen högt. De är medvetna om vad som kan påverka och hota deras roll som revisor i relationen och vet hur de ska agera för att undvika dessa. Förslag till vidare forskning är att studera detta ut klientens perspektiv, vilket sedan kan jämföras med denna studies resultat. / An auditor contributes to assure the quality of the financial information the company hands over and auditing is seen as a quality stamp for third part. There is fierce competition in the audit industry as is no longer mandatory auditing for small companies. Audit firms use marketing and other activities to retain and attract new clients. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding for how auditors reason regarding the relationship with clients and how they perceive that activities to retain and attract clients affect the relationship. The study covers three concepts that are linked to theories. It studies how auditing as a profession, marketing and independence affect the client relationship and the Agency Theory, Professional Theory and Institutional Theory support these. The study is preformed through a qualitative approach where individual interviews are used to collect data from six different auditors. The auditors attach great importance to that the relationships with the clients are good. It is important that the clients are satisfied and stay, but also because it is through word-of-mouth auditors gain most new clients. Auditors belong to a profession and, therefore, the auditors are aware of how they behave in work and outside. Marketing is contrary to the profession but is something they have started to use more. Audit firms use brand marketing while auditors focus mainly on personal marketing. Because of laws, auditors must be independent against their clients and with this they are carful. Nothing may threaten their independence because it can destroy their reputation. The conclusion is that auditors value the client relationship highly. They are aware of what can affect and threaten their role as an auditor in the relationship. They are also aware of how to act in order to avoid these. A suggestion for further research is to study auditor-client relationship from the clients’ perspective, which can then be compared with the result of this study.

Privacy policies often place restrictions on the purposes for which a governed entity may use personal information. For example, regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), require that hospital employees use medical information for only certain purposes, such as treatment, but not for others, such as gossip. Thus, using formal or automated methods for enforcing privacy policies requires a semantics of purpose restrictions to determine whether an action is for a purpose. We provide such a semantics using a formalism based on planning. We model planning using a modified version of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), which exclude redundant actions for a formal definition of redundant. We argue that an action is for a purpose if and only if the action is part of a plan for optimizing the satisfaction of that purpose under the MDP model. We use this formalization to define when a sequence of actions is only for or not for a purpose. This semantics enables us to create and implement an algorithm for automating auditing, and to describe formally and compare rigorously previous enforcement methods. We extend this formalization to Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) to answer when information is used for a purpose. To validate our semantics, we provide an example application and conduct a survey to compare our semantics to how people commonly understand the word “purpose”.

Revisorn står inför ett fundamentalt dilemma, där oberoende måste prioriteras under revisionen samtidigt som konsulttjänster utgör en viktig inkomstkälla och kräver en god relation till klienten. Detta dilemma kan vara extra problematiskt i små bolag eftersom risken för socialt beroende antas vara större när färre individer är involverade. Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för hur revisorer resonerar kring gränsen mellan rådgivning och revision i små bolag. För att uppnå syftet med studien har sju revisorer intervjuats och materialet har studerats utifrån social identitetsteori. Resultaten indikerar att revisorer för små bolag har stark identifikation med klienten, vilket kan göra att deras oberoende riskerar att nedprioriteras till förmån för klientens behov. Förslag till framtida forskning kan vara att göra en liknande kvalitativ studie som denna, men istället fokusera på stora bolag. Denna studie ger ett bidrag till diskussionen om beroende och oberoende eftersom denna studie visar att förståelsen för hur oberoendet konstrueras kan öka genom att studera hur revisorer identifierar sig / The auditor faces a fundamental dilemma, where independence is a priority during the audit while consulting services are an important source of income and requires a good relationship with the client. This dilemma can be particularly problematic in small companies because the risk of social bonding is assumed to be greater when fewer individuals are involved. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how auditors reflect about the boundary between consulting and audit in small companies. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, seven auditors were interviewed and the results have been studied from social identity theory. The findings indicate that auditors of small companies have strong identification with the client, which can make their independent risk a lower priority in favor of the client's needs. Proposals for future research could be to do a similar qualitative study, but instead focus on large companies. This study provides a contribution to the discussion of dependent and independent because this study shows that the understanding of how independence is constructed can increase by studying how auditors identify themselves.

According to global statistics more than half of all people living with HIV are women, the majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa adapted the WHO guidelines on PMTCT to the local situation. In South Africa the prevalence of HIV amongst pregnant women attending public antenatal care is high, although new infections are declining. Studies on missed opportunities in PMTCT have been conducted in other areas of South Africa, but none in the North West Province. Three health institutions deemed to have more patient attendance were chosen for the study from a particular sub-district. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the missed opportunities in the PMTCT programme in a sub-district of the North West Province, the results of which may assist in the improvement of PMTCT services. A descriptive study design was used to identify and describe the missed opportunities in the PMTCT programme during pregnancy, labour and postnatal period. The sample consisted of 125 the records of pregnant women whose babies were born in January 2010. Entry to the health care facilities was gained through written permissions from the Department of Health and the facilities. Missed opportunities identified were that 0.8% (1/125) of pregnant women whose records were audited, was not tested for HIV infections and 9.6% (12/125) had no information on testing. Of the 35 women who were found to be HIV positive, only 74.3% (26/35) had confirmatory test done while it was not done in 2.9% (1/35). Furthermore, only 57.1% (20/35) had their blood for CD4 cell count taken, for 2.9% (1/35) no blood was taken for CD4 cell count and there was no information for the remaining 40.0% (14/35). Only 2.9% (1/35) HIV positive pregnant women continued with HAART during labour, 62.9% (22/35) received ARVs for PMTCT and for 34.2% (12/35) there was no information recorded. Prophylaxis for prolonged rupture of membranes was not given in 5.7% (2/35) of these women during labour. There were no records of any TB screening for such women and infant feeding counselling were never carried out. Lack of recording was the major problem identified in this study. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This thesis investigates the impact of certain identifiable subsets of accounting information on users’ decisions by examining share price revisions that occurred at the same time as the accounting information was released. The subsets examined are the announcements of new share issues, the release of contemporaneous earnings and dividend announcements, and the release of information about asset revaluations. Assuming that an adequate methodology can be designed, a significant share price revision is consistent with the notion that the accounting information cue has "information content". The distinction between accounting research and research in the basic disciplines of economics and mathematics/statistics is the emphasis in accounting on the institutional domain; that is research in accounting requires a "mapping" into the institutional domain in which accounting information is produced and used. This, in turn, provides a justification for the type of announcement effect studies described in the previous paragraph. Clearly the study of share price revisions requires a substantial data base of share prices. Part of this thesis is devoted to a description of the procedures used to establish this data base. The three major announcement effect studies use what is popularly described as the market model residual method of analysis. In the application of this model, some attention has been paid to problems of "thin" trading in the New Zealand environment in providing unbiased estimators of the market model parameters. The results of the application of this methodology are that share prices seem to react rapidly and (generally) unbiasedly to the announcement of bonus issues and contemporaneous earnings and dividend announcements. The size of the reaction in the week that the announcement is made is typically large. The larger is the unexpected component in the announcement of earnings, the larger is the share price revision. With regard to rights issues, no abnormal share price performance was found in the week that the rights issue was announced, although it was clear that companies announcing rights issues had been performing abnormally well over the year up to the announcement. Share price revisions did not appear to accompany the release of information about the current values of assets (usually land and buildings). However it is conceded that this subset of the overall research exercise is more difficult to undertake as there are difficulties in determining an appropriate announcement date, and in determining what the market’s expectations are with regard to the revaluation.

The objective of this research is to investigate the materiality and volatility of comprehensive income for non financial firms in a non US environment. As the FASB and IASB are planning to require the reporting of comprehensive income in a single performance statement, it is important to resolve the issues surrounding the materiality and the volatility of comprehensive income. This study investigates the materiality of comprehensive income and its components in relation to total comprehensive income and closing equity for 37 non financial companies listed on the NZX from 2003 to 2008. Moreover, the cumulative impact of comprehensive income on equity over time is investigated. Further the volatility of comprehensive income is compared to the volatility of net income. This study also investigates the impact of the change to NZ IFRS on comprehensive income The results show that other comprehensive income is material in relation to total comprehensive income, but not in relation to closing equity. Moreover, some components of comprehensive income have a cumulative effect over time on closing equity. Comprehensive income is more volatile than net income. However, these findings are due to asset revaluations, which is the most dominant component of other comprehensive income. Though, all components of comprehensive income are significant for some firm year observations. Further, the move to NZ IFRS affects the materiality of some components of other comprehensive income and reduces the volatility of comprehensive income compared to net income. This study provides evidence that other comprehensive income is material for non financial firms in a non US environment. This suggests that it should be displayed clearly in the financial statement in order to be taken into consideration by financial statement users. Further, this study provides evidence that the difference in volatility between comprehensive income and net income in New Zealand can be avoided by choosing the cost method when measuring assets after recognition.