Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of Masters of Accounting degree in Management Accounting, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / This study seeks to provide a guide for a more advanced costing method that is going to provide some cost allocation techniques from a wider range of TVET college specific activities, and that will provide a valuable insight for management of a college. Such a method was achieved through the development of a standard activity dictionary and the functional decomposition of the campus into small divisions as the methods of identifying major activities that are performed at TVET colleges. Thereafter, a conceptual framework for adoption of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) was developed. The main expected contribution to knowledge is represented in the development of conceptual framework for adoption of the ABC system in KwaZulu-Natal TVET colleges and the originality in the current study lies in bridging the gap in the knowledge and understanding of ABC system in education sector. In addition to providing a way to allocate resources more efficiently, ABC can help colleges to determine the best way to meet their goal by monitoring the use of resources in particular activities. The theory that forms the basis of this study is contingency theory. This theory explains how ABC system is contingent upon contingency factors including organisational and behavioural and technical variables. This contingency theory suggests that the adoption of ABC systems within public TVET colleges is depend upon, or at least associated with size of the firm, cost structure, product diversity, training, resistance to change, internal champion support and innovation, top management support, internal resources availability and technical variables. The new model of ABC adoption has been developed in order to examine reasons why the ABC adoption remains low. This study also seeks to establish factors that constitute barriers to ABC. The hand-delivery questionnaire was appropriate for data collection in this study. The census survey undertaken comprised six public TVET colleges at KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Thirty (30) questionnaires were submitted, and thirty (30) questionnaires were returned, generating a 100% responses rate. The quantitative data were processed using a SPSS version 24.0, leading to appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, including frequencies, means, standard deviations and chi-squares. Nine factors were identified from the literature, seven were found to be statistically significant associated with ABC adoption. The qualitative research method was also used. The research strategy was embedded with multiple cases studies to validate the results derived from the census survey. This was selected to validate the results derived from census survey. The data were gathered via 10 face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from top and middle levels of the five TVET colleges. The semi-structured interviews and survey helped the researcher to discovered new ways of identifying activities such as using business process and examining the colleges’ organogram. This study found that public TVET in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are using the Student Based Costing (SBS) and these colleges do not obtain accurate programme costs because they fail to allocate overhead costs to their respective campuses under costing currently in use in these TVET colleges. This study also found that the public TVET colleges in KZN use a uniform cost (number of students) to assign overhead costs to respective programmes. The findings of this study indicated that ABC has not been adopted at the public TVET colleges in KZN, as 60% of respondents indicated that there is no consideration of ABC to date and 100% of participants also confirmed that their colleges has not been adopted ABC to date. This result confirms that public TVET colleges at KZN are still using Traditional costing system (TCS). This study also showed that eight out of nine factors assist in the adoption of ABC system, and there is positive correlation between these seven factors and ABC adoption. The research findings of this study have exposed some loose ends that could not be answered conclusively by the data, it therefore recommended that a further empirical research should be conducted using case study and survey at all 50 public TVET colleges in South Africa to detect the difficulties and barriers that prevent the adoption of ABC at TVET colleges. / M

The notion of professional work is changing from the traditional learned occupations in which an exclusive body of knowledge and access to practice was controlled by a privileged minority. Nowadays, many more vocational groupings enjoy professional status, although the locus of control over standards and behaviours is moving from professional bodies to organisations in which access to, and use of, knowledge is embedded in information systems. Such changes are epitomised by a new organisational form the shared service centre (SSC) where business support functions are aggregated into business process centres so that efficiency and quality of service can be improved through task simplification, automation and the adoption of multidisciplinary process working. A consequence of the new factory-style environment is that work becomes polarised between a small number of senior professional personnel who design and monitor work systems, and the vast majority of workers who perform low-level, transactional tasks. In the hollowed out middle, a career bottleneck develops meaning that workers have little chance of progression and, moreover, the nature of lower level work may not equip them for senior roles potentially dulling aspirations of a long-term professional career. The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of these changes for the careers of finance professionals working in the SSC. Within the careers literature, there is a tendency to explain individual career orientations of today through theories constructed much earlier. For example, Schein s (1978) concept of career anchors aims to provide a stable framework of influence throughout an individual s work life, yet despite changes in organisational and technological landscapes, these original anchors remain unchallenged. This exploratory enquiry gathers data from finance professionals working in SSCs through interviews and an adapted survey instrument based on Schein s career anchor inventory (COI; 1990) to ask how do those working in professional roles in SSCs understand and navigate their careers? The fundamental contributions of this thesis are as follows: 1) theoretically, a classification which provides a novel frame of reference for understanding types of SSC and the work within them; 2) identification of pertinent skills that both guide and potentially enable careers for finance professionals in this context these extend beyond previous suggestions of soft skills into new business skills for global, multidisciplinary and organisationally focused professional work; 3) evidential support for a refreshed approach to career theory, especially for boundary-focused career scholarship (Inkson et al, 2012) and clarification of new dimensions in multidirectional careers (Baruch, 2004); 4) a proposal for a new set of six career anchors that challenge the relevance of old theory in new contexts and provide meaningful insight into the navigation of careers in new organisational forms. This work serves as a founding and original investigation into careers within finance SSCs. There are practical implications for individual career management, the role and relevance of professional accrediting bodies in new contexts, and also for organisational HR strategy and their function in supporting individual skills development for contemporary professionals in new organisational forms.

Non-compliance with pieces of legislation may be considered the root cause of qualified, disclaimer and adverse opinions that continue to emerge in South African municipalities. One of those pieces of legislation is the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003. The study has assessed compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act at Blouberg Municipality in terms of public consultation and management of the municipal budget. The researcher has used qualitative method in this study. Public consultation plays a significant role in a budgetory process of the Municipality, Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 requires Municipalities to take public views into consideration when compiling a budget. The objectives of local government are often defeated by maladministration because of non- compliance with legislations such as Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003. This can be supported by audit outcomes (2011-11) from the office of the Auditor General. The report states that during the year 2010-11 forty Municipalities had not been audited because they did not submit annual financial statement on time which is a requirement in terms of the MFMA. The objective of the study is to assess compliance with the Municipal Finance Management in the Blouberg Municipality in terms of Public consultation and the competency of the Municipal officials to implement MFMA. During the study, it was found that Blouberg Municipality has embarked on Municipal Finance Management training in order to capacitate its officials to be able to implement MFMA and little has been done in terms of public consultation as members of the public were not aware of their responsibilities in terms of the Municipal budget. It is recommended that the Municipality should review its communication strategy to ensure maximum participation of the public and to create a conducive environment for public participation. / Public Administration and Management / M. P. A

This research focuses on the effectiveness of the leadership roles played by political leaders in guiding the implementation of government processes to attain the required objectives and goals. The Constitution vests the National Assembly and provincial legislatures with the power to exercise oversight of their respective executives in addition to their legislative and other powers. In order to facilitate Parliament’s oversight of the national executive organs of state, section 92(3)(b) of the Constitution requires of members of the Cabinet to provide Parliament with full and regular reports concerning matters under their control. Parliament and the legislatures have a critical role to play in overseeing effective performance by organs of state. Political leadership, through Parliament, ensures that the objectives of the state are always at the forefront of any activities that government departments and public entities engage in. The delivery of services by the government and the reporting of any achievements are also crucial and ensure that citizens know what services the government is delivering. The challenge facing the government is whether the delivery of services is effectively done and whether people for whom the services are intended do actually benefit from them. This calls for an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to determine whether the objectives of the government have indeed been met. Before the monitoring process can commence, effective financial management and reporting systems should be put in place to ensure that the delivery of essential services can be correctly accounted for. The South African Government has developed a financial management policy, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), No. 1 of 1999, the implementation of which is aimed at ensuring effective financial management processes that will help safeguard public resources. Through the oversight process of Parliament, the politicians are able to oversee the government functions being performed by government departments and public entities through the process of analysing these reports as and when they receive them. In the exercising of its oversight function, Parliament has been successful in some areas and unsuccessful in others as identified in this report. It is the aim of this report to identify those areas that have not produced good results and to make recommendations on how to deal with these areas in order to produce better results. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Thesis (Ph. D. Commerce (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The current work assessed the link between environmental sustainability commitment and financial performance of firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Broadly, the researcher aimed to establish whether environmental sustainability commitment as measured by energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste management, carbon emission reduction, material efficiency, green products and services innovation, environmental compliance and stakeholder engagement do affect financial performance. Furthermore, the study tested the moderation effect of industry type on the link between environmental sustainability commitment and financial performance. The study was quantitative in nature with a case study research design. The longitudinal design was adopted where the researcher collected panel data from 2011-2018. The population of the study included all firms listed on the JSE Responsible Investment Index in South Africa. The sample constituted of 32 firms listed on the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index in South Africa. The researcher employed panel regression analysis model to analyse the data. Specifically, the Feasible Generalised Least Squares regression model was utilised in this study. Financial performance was treated as the dependant variable and was measured using return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), earnings per share (EPS), share price and Tobin’s q. The independent variables of the study included components of environmental sustainability; energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste management, carbon emission reduction, material efficiency, green products and services innovation, environmental compliance and stakeholder engagement. Control variables such as firm size and liquidity were used in the study. Mixed findings emerged from the statistical tests. The findings on the relationship between energy efficiency and financial performance suggested that energy efficiency has no significant effect on financial performance as measured by ROE, ROA and Tobin’s Q. Conversely, a significant and negative link was established when energy efficiency was tested against EPS and share price. A significant positive relationship was established between water efficiency and EPS as well as share price. The results further revealed that being water efficient may not significantly affect financial performance when ROE, ROA and Tobin’s Q are used. The results showed no significant relationship between waste management and all dependent variables. The findings indicated that carbon emission reduction was positively and significantly related to EPS and share price. Nevertheless, it was discovered that the nexus between carbon emission reduction and measures of financial performance such as ROE, ROA and Tobin’s Q was positive but insignificant. In terms of material efficiency and financial performance, the findings indicated that material efficiency had an insignificant effect on ROE, ROA, share price and Tobin’s Q. Nevertheless, a significant and negative relationship was established between material efficiency and EPS. Considering green products and services innovation and performance, the findings established a significant negative relationship between green products and services innovation and share price. However, the results further indicated that the link between green products and services innovation and ROE, ROA, EPS as well as Tobin’s Q was insiginificant. The findings exhibited that environmental compliance was negatively related to ROE and Tobin’s Q yet positively related to EPS and share price. An insignificant relationship was established between environmental compliance and ROA. Stakeholder engagement was found to be positively related to EPS. It was also found that the effect of environmental sustainability commitment on financial performance did not differ based on the industry type. The findings rather showed that firms within each industry had specific environmental sustainability commitment and financial performance combinations which were unique to that industry. It was also found that industry type significantly moderates the relationship between environmental sustainability commitment and financial performance. It was concluded that firms can enhance their financial performance from environmental investments which are unique to certain industries as determined by key stakeholders in that sector. Recommendations were made to different stakeholders such as the government, corporate managers and organisations which provide environmental reporting guidelines to play an active role in promoting environmental sustainability commitment among firms. Keywords: environmental sustainability commitment; financial performance; firms; sustainable development; Johannesburg Stock Exchange; South Africa

Regular savings behavior is critical for low-income Americans to achieve financial mobility. New technology tools are being used to improve personal awareness and attention to financial goals. This thesis reviews mobile learning (mLearning) research and leading commercial personal finance smartphone apps, both of which inform the design of Financial Forest, a savings app. Participants in the 4-week Financial Forest savings study are found to have a statistically significant improved perception of the difficulty of building an emergency fund.

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 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)

This study focuses on the effectiveness of audit committees in public entities, specifically schedule 3A entities, which are governed by the PFMA. It is clear that the audit committee cannot operate on its own if it wishes to be effective. Management, Internal Audit and External Audit (Auditor General of South Africa) all play significant roles in the effectiveness of the audit committee. Internal Audit and the Auditor General are assurance providers for the audit committee and therefore play an even bigger role in its effectiveness. The independence of these assurance providers is vital, as the audit committee relies on them to obtain an independent view of the effectiveness of controls within the entities. / Graduate School of Business Leadership

Study project (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this assignment is to develop a method for rate making of construction machines and vehicles. An analysis of the fixed and variable cost of machines and vehicles are made together with the allocation of overhead costs. After anal ising the various cost components a model is developed for the determination of depreciation and finance charges by using the utilization of the relevant plant item. The figures obtained from this model are then used in an asset register. The information needed by the Receiver of Revenue is also included in this register for calculating the depreciation value at the end of the financial year. The maintenance and replacement of plant equipment are also discussed. Before the conclusion the necessity of keeping accurate records and the use of budgets for managing are looked at. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die werkstuk is om 'n raamwerk daar te stel wat gebruik kan word vir tariefvasstelling van konstruksiemasjiene en - voertuie. In Ontleding van die vaste en veranderlike koste van masjinerie en voertuie word gemaak, asook die hantering van oorhoofse koste in die onderneming. Nil die bespreking van die verskillende kostekomponente waaruit 'n tarief bestaan, word die klem geplaas op die berekening van waardevermindering. 'n Model vir waardeverminderingen finansieringskostebepaling aan die hand van die benutting van toerusting word ontwikkel. Die inligting sodoende verkry word saamgevat in 'n bateregister tesame met die inligting noodsaaklik vir die Ontvanger van Inkomste om waardeverminderingafskrywings te maak aan die einde van elke finansiele jaar. Die onderhoud en vervanging van toerusting word ook bespreek. Ter afsluiting word rekordhouding en die opstel van begrotings bespreek en die nut daarvan vir bestuur uitgewys.