Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The future existence of municipalities is determined by their ability to remain financially sustainable. This study is significant as municipalities need to ensure that they are financially sustainable for the continued provision and maintenance of quality and affordable services to all the residents within their jurisdiction. The primary objective of the study was to assess the financial performance of the Cape Agulhas Municipality over a period of ten years. A secondary objective was to identify factors that constrain or facilitate improved financial management in municipalities and that may have an influence on their sustainability. The focus of the study was limited to financial management aspects of the Cape Agulhas Municipality from 2003 to 2014 and was conducted at a macro or strategic level. The research is a longitudinal qualitative study as this methodology was deemed as the best to undertake in a study of this nature. The data collection process comprised of open ended semi- structured interviews with senior politicians and officials in the municipality. Financial data from the annual financial statements and the Auditor General of South Africa over the period of study were evaluated and analysed so as to produce financial ratios and establish trends. The financial data was assessed against the financial health measures as identified by the National Treasury to determine the financial status of the municipality. Analysing the financial performance of the municipality produced information that can be used as an early warning system to mitigate further deterioration of the financial situation and inform future decisions in terms thereof. This study was useful as the findings may contribute towards effective municipal financial management and the financial sustainability of municipalities. The study makes the following findings and recommendations: The municipality experienced liquidity tensions from 2006. Although the payment ratio had been increasing over the last two years of the study, consumer debtors had been increasing and limited amounts were budgeted for the writing off of bad debt. Electricity tariff increases were significantly above the inflation rate, and salaries, wages and allowances were the largest expenditure item over the whole period of the study. In terms of provision for maintenance and repairs, these were less than half of the norm for most of the study period, and lastly the cash reserves were severely depleted from 2006 as they were used to fund long term capital projects. It is recommended that the municipality stabilises the decline in current assets and continues with the diligent implementation of its credit control policy, not only to maintain the positive collection rate but also to curb the increase in consumer debtors. In order to enhance the affordability of rates and tariffs the municipality must perform a cost analysis of all rates and tariffs to ensure that they are cost reflective. The organisational structure must be reviewed annually to verify that only critical and legislatively required posts are approved and budgeted for, as this is the largest expenditure item in the municipal budget. Furthermore, a comprehensive infrastructure maintenance plan must be developed to guide decisions when the budget for maintenance and repairs is considered, not only to ensure that this budget item is closer to the national norm but that it is spent on and tracked to infrastructure with the highest priority. The municipality needs to develop and approve a long term financial plan with its related policies to curb the further decline of its cash reserves and which includes a capital funding mix that is aligned to the useful life of the infrastructure to be financed.

Mini-dissertation (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Mini-dissertation (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Mini-dissertation (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The thesis focuses audit of annual financial statement. Theoretical part addresses Czech legislation which sets rules, content and form for elaboration of financial statement. It also describes situation when international accounting standards can be utilised. Czech audit regulation is explained together with demands placed on auditing profession. Finally, it analyzes preparation of an accounting entity and audit procedures from order receipt to audit opinion. Practical part covers real financial of a real unnamed company.

This thesis deals with notes to the financial statements and their explanatory power. Firstly annual financial statement is presented shortly with other context. Then content of the notes to the financial statements is specified in details together with information how should the notes look to provide satisfactory explanatory power. A survey of the real notes was realized for evaluation of these notes. Information stated in the notes were evaluated and the average number of errors in these notes was found out. In the survey it was found out that three errors you can find in the notes of unaudited companies on the average and that the notes of audited companies are worse than the notes of unaudited companies. The main finding is that you can find errors in the notes to the financial statements and these errors can reduce the explanatory power.

The diploma thesis focuses on comparison of demands for making financial statements complying with Czech Accounting Legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards. Furthermore you will also find definitions for types of business performance indicators and how the values for financial statement transformation change.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The value added statement is published by about 200 of the 400 companies listed in the industrial sector on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This is the highest incidence of publication of such statements reported to date. It appears from a literature review that the usefulness of the statement has never been tested in depth from the perspective of the users. The importance of this study stems from the increased incidence of publication of the statement in South Africa and the lack of evidence substantiating its usefulness. The study aims to investigate the usefulness of the value added statement in South Africa from the perspective of all the different users of external financial information. The literature review revealed that, although the value added statement is based on the theory of value added and was aimed at broadening the scope of financial reporting, it did not develop to the point of being governed by statutory requirements. This resulted in diverse accounting treatment in the statement and the resultant loss of consistency and comparability, which gave an early indication from the literature that value added statements might not be very useful. The usefulness of the value added statement was evidenced by users actually using the statement and the explanatory and predictive power of value added information. No reliable evidence of users actually using the statement was found in the literature. Evidence was found that value added information had greater predictive and explanatory power than earnings, but these findings were found to be inconclusive. A questionnaire survey among users representing the South African users of external financial reports revealed little evidence of actual use of the value added statement. The general usage trend from past to present, was to use the statement less rather than more. More than fifty percent of the respondents do not intend to use the statement in future, even if the shortcomings experienced could be overcome. The major reason for this lack of support for the value added statement seems to be the shortcomings experienced by the users when publishing and using the statement, which stems mainly from the lack of statutory requirements. Another reason is that the value added statement introduces very little information that is not already available from the other financial statements. The predictive and explanatory power of value added information was examined by doing statistical analysis on empirical data of South African listed companies. This analysis indicated that value added information did not have additional explanatory and predictive power when compared to earnings and that the high inter-correlation between value added and earnings prevented value added from being used in prediction models in combination with earnings. The predictive and explanatory power of value added information is therefore limited. This research study could not find sufficient evidence of the usefulness of value added statements to justify their continued publication, neither could it find significant support for future use. It is therefore suggested that the publication of the statement be discontinued and that additional information be included in the income statement disclosures to accommodate this.