Financial statement fraud control has attracted considerable attention and associated response in recent years due to the incalculable collateral damage that could drain the long term success of companies. This research aims to present recommendations to improve financial statement fraud control in commercial companies. The research also evaluates the current strategies for the prevention and detection of financial statement fraud and the reaction thereto. Accordingly, the research attempts to highlight the best practices and weaknesses from the present practices. Based on the experience of two Malaysian commercial companies, the research provides ameliorations to improve the current weaknesses, in particular, to financial statement fraud control. The research takes a normative point of view in making recommendations for financial statement fraud control. A qualitative research methodology is adopted in conducting the investigation to understand the actual conduct of practices. Hence, the primary data are acquired from the case study companies and interviews with the relevant group of respondents, and secondary data from the law, regulations, legislation and professional guidelines. The research investigates the financial statement fraud regulations to understand the legal framework as well as the legal practice. Furthermore, the professional guidelines are examined to understand what the professional bodies have suggested to manage the risk of fraud, thereby enabling the researcher to understand the consequences of the actual practices and provide improvements for financial statement fraud control. In addition, interviews with regulators, forensic accountants, external auditors and independent bodies are conducted to develop an understanding of the protocols of financial statement fraud in Malaysia. Therefore, the findings of the research are a mix of the present practices, respective roles, and perceptions concerning the issues of financial statement fraud control. The case study findings demonstrate that neither case study company is highly concerned about the issue of financial statement fraud control. This provides an indication that no evidence was gained concerning specific controls embedded in the present internal control system and typifies the actual practice, in particular, the prevention, detection and response strategies to mitigate financial statement fraud. The lack of evidence presents a research limitation to identify any best practices for the mitigation of financial statement fraud in the context of commercial companies in Malaysia. The research results indicate that the case study companies are highly reliant on their respective internal controls for the prevention of financial statement fraud and detection strategies. In addition, they demonstrate that the present internal audit functions focus on operational audit and concern pertaining to corporate risk. This provides an indication that the scope of the internal auditing work is not primarily concerned with the accuracy of the financial statement information, but rather with the risk of losses to the respective companies. This certainly leaves scope for an expectation gap to arise in the present internal audit functions and the association of internal audit and risk towards financial statement fraud. The particular aspects concerning the detection of fraud in financial statements and financial statement fraud control have been perceived differently between the company’s internal and external auditors. The combined results of the perceived control by company management, the present audit functions, and the detection and control responsibilities of the internal and external auditors provide and support the existence of an internal audit expectation gap. The overall case study findings indicate evidence of an internal audit expectation gap, which constitutes a serious flaw in the internal control systems adopted by the companies. Therefore, the contribution of this research might improve the present internal control system and provide a more holistic solution for financial statement fraud control. A review of the findings also indicates that Malaysia implements the lowest penalties and exercises the most lenient enforcement in relation to financial statement fraud cases compared to the UK and the US. The research has made contributions to research methodology; contributions to knowledge about the present practices in the form of practical recommendations to improve practice; contributions to academic theory in relation to the theoretical concept of financial statement fraud control and internal auditing of financial statement and, finally, contributions to the regulators and standard setters. The research also offers anti-fraud programmes, particularly in respect of the prevention, detection and response strategies as part of a company’s efforts to mitigate financial statement fraud. Overall, the research contributes to the study of financial statement fraud control and provides practical recommendations for financial statement auditing theory. The focus on financial statement fraud in commercial companies would enhance the reliability of the issued financial statement.

The Flexible Print Circuit industry now is difficult to earn profit, because of few results , such as, homogeneous products, main materials depending on import of foreign country, rapidly lower down price for competition and being the OEM firm of the main computer producers. If you are not the leading firm in this industry, you will go bankrupt or make loss all the time. My thesis try to find out which factors will influence firm¡¦s profit by compositing eight financial ratio indexes which use principle component analysis and compositing five industry factors in order to provide FPC¡¦s managers to control their cost and profit. Our research subjects are eight public offer companies, which include Career Tech., SUNFLEX, NEOFLEX, UNIFLEX, FLEXIUM, YHI, ICHIA and MKS. Research period is from 2001 to 2005. Data is annual report of financial statement and prospectus from TEJ, Market observation post system and SFI. We use SAS software to analyze data. To consider the difference between operating profit and Non-operating profits, using two financial ratios, Capital-operating income ratio and capital-net profit ratio, as the proxy of company¡¦s profit are the regressors and above mentioned thirteen factors are regressive. By processing two stepwise regressions, we could find out the following empirical results¡G First of all, FPC¡¦s operating profit will be significantly related to mobile phone volume, enterprise risk, credit policy and the ability of asset¡¦s turnover. Adjusted R-square is 0.8236. Second, FPC¡¦s total profit will be significantly related to mobile phone volume, enterprise risk, credit policy, the ability of asset¡¦s turnover and activity. Adjusted R-square is 0.8328.

Financial Accounting Standard Committee modified the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No.7 ¡§Consolidated Financial Statement¡¨ in 2004. The new standard was conducted in 2006. This study is to discuss the influence of the modified Standard on earnings management of Business Groups. The test samples include 178 companies, which belong to 69 business groups. The test window is from 2005 June to 2007 June. We, using Modified Jones Model, compared the discriminate accruals generated from both consolidated financial statements and financial statements of parent companies. The findings of this study are presented as follows: 1. The modification of SFAS No.7 conducted no influence on earnings management and related party transactions of business groups. 2. After modified SFAS No.7 was conducted, the discriminate accruals generated from consolidated financial statements differ from those of financial statements of parent companies. However, no such difference exists before SFAS No.7 was modified. The findings reveal that the modification of SFAS No.7 helps fully disclose the financial information of business groups. The stakeholders, therefore, should consider both consolidated financial information and financial statements of single parent companies.

In this paper, I will highlight the current issues at hand pertaining to the accounting industry policies. I will focus on the auditing sector providing services for public companies. I will lay out the structure, rules, and regulations that are in place today as well as criticize the areas that can be improved upon. I will go through various possibilities of solutions and conclude that the best way to increase financial statement reliability in our country is by both strengthening audit committees and providing financial statement insurance.

I examine whether cultural differences in trust towards others, materialism, and risk aversion lower financial statement comparability between countries that require International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). Evidence from various academic disciplines suggest that cultural beliefs and values affect individuals’ estimates and judgments and their consequent decisions, including economic and financial decisions. I posit that certain cultural beliefs and values also affect the estimates and judgments of corporate managers, resulting in inconsistent reporting decisions for given economic events and lower financial statement comparability. I find that two countries have lower comparability when there are greater cultural differences in trust towards others, materialism, and risk aversion. In cross-sectional tests, I find weak evidence that stronger enforcement of IFRS moderates the cultural effects on cross-country financial statement comparability. Stronger enforcement of regulations and law does not moderate the cultural effects. These findings suggest that having a strong IFRS, regulatory, or legal enforcement does not effectively moderate the impact of culture on cross-country financial statement comparability. A possible explanation is that cultural influence on financial reporting is also manifested through enforcement officials; in other words, those in charge of the enforcement are also subject to the same cultural beliefs and values as others involved in the reporting process, making moderation less likely.

This thesis has two (2) broad objectives. The first objective is to test the impact of audit committee and internal audit (IA) function characteristics on IA contribution to the financial statement audit. The second objective is to investigate whether a negative association exists between IA contribution to the financial statement audit and audit fees. The study is conducted in a Malaysian context and focuses on the perspectives of internal auditors. There are a number of motivations for the study. In particular, previous studies have not addressed the need for a better understanding of how corporate governance mechanisms such as audit committee and IA unit attributes may affect IA contribution to the financial statement audit. Also, the results of prior studies on the link between IA contribution to the financial statement audit and audit fees are mixed and inconclusive. Furthermore, there is limited empirical evidence in this area from emerging economy countries, with relatively less developed capital markets such as Malaysia. The underlying theme throughout this thesis is that corporate governance mechanisms i.e., audit committee and IA characteristics have the potential to affect the efficiency of the IA unit thus leading to greater contribution of IA to financial statement audits. Specifically, the thesis argues that certain characteristics of audit committees such as the independence of audit committee members from the management, audit committee members' experience and knowledge in accounting, auditing and finance and their level of interactions with the chief internal auditor have the potential to increase the contribution of IA work to financial statement audits. Likewise, it is also postulated that characteristics of the IA function such as their size and prior experience of their staff in auditing are likely to improve the level of efficiency and hence, encourage greater contribution of IA to the external audit work. Finally, due to the saturation of the audit services market coupled with significant competition among public accounting firms, it is also predicted that the contribution of IA work is increasingly viewed as a potential means of improving external audit efficiency (i.e. by reducing time and effort), leading to lower audit fees. Seven (7) hypotheses are tested in this study based on Malaysian data during 2003. Data collection adopted a multi approach with three (3) key sources of data: a questionnaires survey, in-depth interviews and publicly available data from annual reports. The data collection process involved a mail survey addressed to the chief internal auditors of companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) Main Board. Five-hundred and two questionnaires (502) were mailed and a total of 101 (20.03%) responses were returned, of which 76 (17.9%) were useable. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 chief internal auditors selected from various industries which were also listed on the KLSE Main Board. Finally, publicly available data from annual reports were utilized. The study makes a number of contributions. First, it provides empirical evidence on the impact of audit committee characteristics on IA contribution to financial statement audits. In particular, the study supports a positive relationship between IA contribution to the financial statement audit and three (3) dimensions of audit committee characteristics namely the proportion of independent audit committee members, the extent of audit committee members' experience and knowledge in auditing, accounting and finance, and the frequency of meetings between the chief internal auditor and the audit committee. This suggests that a high proportion of independent audit committee members with experience and knowledge in accounting, auditing and finance is able to enhance the efficacy of the IA function and thus, encourages external auditors to rely more on the IA function. The results support the earlier predictions that more frequent meetings conducted between audit committees and the chief internal auditor leads to higher extent of IA contribution to the financial statement audit. Further, findings of this study also provides support for the positive relationship between the characteristics of the IA function, namely the size of the IA function and the proportion of staff with prior experience in auditing and IA contribution to the financial statement audit. The results suggest that internal auditors contribute more to the financial statement audit when the size of the IA function is larger and when the proportion of IA staff with prior experience in auditing is higher. Finally, the second model tests for a negative relationship between IA contribution to the financial statement audit and audit fees. However, the results did not yield a significant relationship between these two variables. Further clarifications for this result were derived from the interviews with the chief internal auditors. Specifically, it appears that any saving in time and effort due to the contribution of IA to financial statement audits may possibly be used by external auditors to expand their investigations into other more complex areas that require greater attention from them. Other findings from the interviews also suggest that audit committees play an important role as communication facilitators between the IA staff and management, especially by providing a candid forum for IA staff to express their opinions as well as supporting IA staff's recommendations based on their findings during audit investigations. Further, the leadership role of the audit committee also tends to assist the internal auditors to better communicate with management and to ensure that management will act upon the internal auditor's recommendations. In conclusion, the findings may have some implications for regulators and others concerned with establishing guidelines and listing rules pertaining to audit committee effectiveness especially in developing countries. Furthermore, this study also contributes to the literature on how an IA unit's resourcing has implications for IA contribution to the financial statement audit. While the current professional standards (i.e., ISA 610, SAS 65, and AUS 604) view IA as a substitute for external audit, such professional standards also require external auditors to evaluate the quality of IA unit before relying on the work of IA or accept the contribution of IA to the financial statement audit. As such, this study provides evidence on the potential impact that audit committees and IA units may have on such contribution of IA to the financial statement audit.

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Η εργασία χωρίζεται σε τέσσερα κεφάλαια. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο είναι η εισαγωγή και κάποιες πληροφορίες για τις εταιρείες των οποίων θα κάνουμε την ανάλυση των οικονομικών καταστάσεων. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο αναφέρεται η μεθοδολογία που ακολουθήθηκε που για την εκπόνηση της εργασίας. Δηλαδή ο τρόπος που έγινε η δουλειά. Ακόμη γίνεται αναφορά στους αριθμοδείκτες που θα χρησιμοποιηθούν. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο γίνεται η ανάλυση των οικονομικών καταστάσεων και, προφανώς, η εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων βάσει των αποτελεσμάτων των αριθμοδεικτών. Τέλος, κάνουμε μία συνολική σύγκριση των υπό μελέτη εταιρειών, σύμφωνα με τα δεδομένα του τρίτου κεφαλαίου, βγάζοντας ένα γενικό συμπέρασμα. / --

The aim of the diploma thesis is verification of the financial statement and annual report in a specifically selected company. The application part follows the theoretical characterization of the latest auditing procedures, legislative and other adjustements in the Czech republic. Firstly the thesis is focused on the theoretical solution concerning the audit of the financial statement and annual report. In the first chapter are characterised the most important terms relating to the auditing such as subject and objective of audit, users of accounting information or qualities and qualifications of auditor. The next part concludes legal and professional background of auditing in the Czech republic. Major part of the theoretical section consists of the latest attitude to the auditing procedures of verification of the financial statement and annual report. There is also a description of the auditing process according to a methodical manual. The last and the most crucial part of the thesis consists of a practical application of auditing procedures of verificaion of the financial statement and annual report in a selected company. A subchapter receiving the most attention is Realization of auditing procedures that is based on analysis of the particular part of assets, liabilities, costs and profits.

This master's thesis deals with the methodology for Enlargement of Consolidated Group. The national regulation gradually takes over several terms contained in International Financial Reporting Standards, but there are still a few differences between these systems. The definition of consolidation under IFRS and other related regulations is considerably more complex and handle the situations that are neglected in Czech legislation. Theoretical part is oriented on the given issue both from the point of view of IFRS and Czech legislation.