International Financial Reporting Standard focuses on principle-based and fair-value, IFRS main assets weigh foundation, regard amalgamating the report form as enterprise main consolidated-report, attention to financial-report information reveal transparency and express so as to business's view. Corporate governance has managed already for the global common understanding on industry, chain of command of risk, system of managing, in order to improve the quality of managing, strengthen the foundation stone of managing physique and international competitiveness, the opportunity and transparency are tall that information is revealed, demonstrate the operation conditions and financial affairs of the company behave and can be supervised. Suitable International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) Open for issue company, control inside system the proclaimed in writing include in there are management, the speciality accounting of International Financial Reporting Standard, reach the operation activity result, express and must stipulate and fill one in accordance with the communique that reveals its dependability through the figure of the financial statement, integrality, saving the regulation, rules and regulations procedure and work rule from damage, depending on to enterprise's assets, carry out implementation. Countries all over the world attention to transparency that enterprise manage more and more, no matter in Corporate governance, Control system or International Financial Reporting Standard information their reveal transparency all for ask usually mainly, International Financial Reporting Standard, Control system, Corporate governance the three and is both as moving closely bound uply in succession, can bring up high-quality enterprises and market culture.

<p>The problem area was identified due to the fact that research within internal audit is fragmented and insufficient, simultaneously to internal audit becoming more common in the public debate. Crises and scandals in companies such as Enron in the US and Skandia in Sweden have resulted in new regulations regarding how companies should be governed. These regulations have been established in Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, and in Sweden the Swedish code for corporate governance will be implemented in 2005. The regulations imply that companies must provide sound internal control and to accomplish that, companies should have an auditing and consulting internal audit function. The Swedish code for corporate governance denotes that companies can decide to comply or explain why the code is not complied. SOX on the other hand require that the regulation is being followed. The raised question is how internal audit is performed. International research has thrown light upon this question but few studies have been made in a Swedish perspective.</p><p>The purpose with this thesis is to describe the role of internal audit in Swedish companies, to examine if the role is perceived as a watchdog or as a consultant, and to analyze to what extent present regulations affect internal audit.</p><p>The choice of method in the thesis has taken the form of a profound qualitative research in three companies accompanied by a quantitative research to examine if the results from the qualitative study could be confirmed. The qualitative research consisted of interviews with three companies, which all have an established internal audit function. The interviews were followed by a questionnaire presented to all companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange most traded A-list.</p><p>The results show that of the companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange most traded A-list only 32 percent have an internal audit function. This can be perceived as low when previous studies in the area have shown that internationally it is a common function. In the companies where there is an internal audit function, the role has mainly transformed back to a watchdog perspective from previously been heading towards a consulting role. This shift in the role of internal audit mostly derives from the exceeded regulations within corporate governance.</p> / <p>Det identifierade problemområdet tar sin början i att forskning inom internrevision är fragmenterad och ofullständig samtidigt som internrevision har blivit allt vanligare i den allmänna debatten. Kriser och skandaler i företag som till exempel Enron i USA och Skandia i Sverige har lett till nya regleringar hur företag ska styras och förvaltas. Dessa regleringar har tillkommit i form av Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) i USA och i Sverige kommer Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning att implementeras under 2005. Regleringarna säger bland annat att företaget måste tillgodose en god intern kontroll och att företagen för att uppnå detta, bör ha en granskande och konsulterande internrevisionsfunktion. Den svenska koden anger dock att företaget kan välja att i stället förklara varför koden inte efterföljs, detta till skillnad från SOX som kräver att regelverket följs. Frågan väcks hur internrevisionen i företag ser ut. Viss internationell forskning har belyst denna fråga, men studier i ett svenskt perspektiv lyser med sin frånvaro.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva internrevisionens roll i svenska företag, att undersöka om rollen upplevs som övervägande granskande eller konsulterande, samt att analysera i vilken utsträckning aktuella regelverk påverkar internrevisionen.</p><p>Metodvalet i uppsatsen har tagit sig uttryck i en djupgående kvalitativ undersökning av tre företag, åtföljt av en kvantitativ undersökning för att undersöka om resultaten från den kvalitativa studien bekräftas. Den kvalitativa undersökningen består av intervjuer med tre företag som alla har en väl etablerad internrevisionsfunktion. Efter dessa intervjuer formulerades ett antal frågor som sammanställdes i en enkät. Dessa frågor ställdes till företag på Stockholmsbörsens A-lista, mest omsatta.</p><p>Resultaten som framkom, visar att av företagen på Stockholmsbörsens A-lista, mest omsatta, är det enbart 32 procent som har en internrevisionsfunktion vilket kan anses som lågt då tidigare studier inom området pekar på att det internationellt är en vanlig funktion hos företagen. Där det finns en internrevisionsfunktion har dess roll till övervägande del gått tillbaka till att bli alltmer granskande, från att tidigare ha varit på väg mot en konsulterande roll. Detta skift i internrevisionens roll har framförallt sin grund i den ökade regleringen inom corporate governance.</p>

Denna uppsats utreder problemet bakom finansiellt bedrägeri. Då bedrägeri är ett vanligt förekommande ekonomibrott är det ett problem alla företag kan utsättas för. Syftet med uppsatsen är att försöka få en djupare förståelse för den interna kontrollen och vilken roll den spelar inom företag. Det exakta forskningsproblemet är: Vad har den interna kontrollen för betydelse för en organisation? För att studera problemet började vi med att undersöka den mänskliga faktorn bakom bedrägeri med hjälp av COSO-modellens fem huvudkomponenter: kontrollmiljö, riskbedömning, kontrollaktiviteter samt information och kommunikation har vi utfört ett fallstudie på ett svenskt företag. Den teorin vi valde att använda oss av var i linje med COSO-modellen, vilket är ett ramverk som hjälper företag att organisera sina interna kontroller, och det var också detta vi använde som analysmodell för det insamlade materialet. Det utvalda företaget använde sig för stunden av ramverket för deras interna kontroller. Den empiriska delen har bestått av kvalitativa intervjuer som har genomförts med hjälp av sex olika individer anställda på olika nivåer inom den utvalda organisationen, för att på så vis få en bättre bild av och förståelse för hela organisationen. Respondenternas bakgrund och befattning varierade mellan varandra, av denna anledning passade det bra med en semi-strukturerad intervjuguide för att undvika att viktiga eller intressanta ämnen skulle förbises. Genom denna uppsats har vi undersökt en organisations interna kontroller och hur den uppfattas genom hela organisationen. Analysen stämde överens med teorierna som påstod att en organisation behöver ett väl strukturerat internt kontrollsystem med en kontinuerlig riskanalysering, för att undvika bedrägerier och liknande skandaler. Samt att med de rätta kontrollerna och med en mer enad arbetsprocess lämnar det mindre utrymme för anställda och andra involverade att utnyttja systemet och därmed ökar säkerheten och minskar risken inom organisationen. / The purpose of this thesis is to get a deeper understanding of the role that internal control plays within the company, also what internal control means to the organizations. We examined a swedish company using the COSO-modell ’s five components, namely control environment, control activities, risk assessment, information and communication and monitoring. The chosen company was currently using the COSO-modell for their internal control. Therefore, the questionnaires were designed in line with these components The study showed that to avoid fraud and scandals an organization need a well structured internal control system with a constant risk analysing. With the right control mechanism and a more united working process it leaves less room for employees and other individuals involved to manipulate the system, consequently increasing the security and decreasing the risk within the organization.

This paper explains what recognition the auditor has of theoretical judgment and decision making subjects surrounding the audit process. The auditors’ judgment and decision making skills seem to be more challenged when it comes to estimating their clients’ valuations. Therefore, the audit process of fair value measures (FVM) is used to charterer the recognition more clearly. Attention to this topic is warranted for several reasons. First, FVM was implemented on the Swedish market in 2005 and is relatively recent to Swedish auditors. Second, to our knowledge no similar study, regarding the Swedish audit firms, has been conducted within this area. Third, the evidence, drawn from previous research, of what recognition the auditors have of the theoretical judgment and decision making subjects seem to be more indirect than direct and we also extend the previous research. We find, through semi-structured interviews with employees of the ‘Big four’, that both judgment and decision making are acknowledged as possible issues. However, we also find that certain areas within these two categories are unrecognized to be of immediate concern.

Darbe apžvelgiama Lietuvoje gautos ES finansinės paramos valdymo ir kontrolės sistema, susisteminami pagrindiniai Europos Komisijos reikalavimai kontrolės sistemai, apibrėžiamas Europos Sąjungos finansinės paramos lėšų vidaus audito vaidmuo visoje paramos lėšų kontrolės sistemoje ir analizuojamas vidaus audito pasirengimas tinkamam priskirtų funkcijų įgyvendinimui. Darbe iškelta hipotezė pasitvirtino tik iš dalies. Lietuvos valstybinio sektoriaus vidaus auditas nesuteikia pilnos garantijos, kad Europos Sąjungos paramos lėšos naudojamos teisėtai, tinkamai ir tik finansuotinoms išlaidoms dengti, dėl nepakankamų praktinių įgūdžių, nepakankamo vidaus auditorių skaičiaus, specialiųjų gebėjimų neturėjimo, nemotyvuotos mokymo politikos, netobulo veiklos planavimo. / This job reviews the system of the European Union funds control, the role of internal audit and the internal audit readiness to guarantee that the European Union funds are used legallyand properly. The hypothesis suggested at the beginning of the work proved out only partially. The internal sector of the Lithuanian state sector does not give a full guarantee that the European Union funds are used legally, properly and only in order to reimburse the costs to be financed, due to the lack of efficient practical skills, insufficient number of internal auditors, absence of special capasities, unmotivated training policy, incomplete planning of activities.

This study investigates whether disclosures of material weaknesses in a firm’s internal control over financial reporting are associated with lower investor perceived earnings quality. I measure investor perceived earnings quality by a market returns based representation of earnings quality called e-loading developed by Ecker et al. (2006). My empirical tests use sample firms that disclosed at least one material weakness from August 2002 to October 2005. The cross-sectional univariate analysis shows that firms disclosing internal control material weaknesses have lower investor perceived earnings quality than matched firms that disclose no internal control problems. However, further cross-sectional multivariate regression analysis reveals that after controlling for firm characteristics, only disclosures of company-level material weaknesses have an incremental impact on investor perceived earnings quality, while disclosures of the less pervasive account-specific material weaknesses do not have a measurable effect on perceived earnings quality. From intertemporal within-firm analysis, I find no evidence that firms experienced a change in their perceived earnings quality after their first disclosure of internal control material weaknesses as per SOX 302 or 404. In contrast, I find that firms experienced an increase in perceived earnings quality after they received their first unqualified SOX 404 audit report indicating remediation of previously disclosed material weaknesses. This suggests that, although investors did not find the initial SOX disclosures of internal control weaknesses to be incrementally informative, the legislation motivated firms to remediate weak controls; moreover, the SOX-induced improvement in weak internal controls enhanced investors’ perception of the offending firms’ financial reporting quality. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-17 11:41:11.323

Summary Jelena Makara Internal Audit in Lithuanian Enterprises Final work of University magistracy Studies, 76 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, 61 literature references, 4 appendix, in Lithuanian. KEY words: internal audit, internal control, stage, enterprises, Lithuania. The object of research is the internal audit in enterprises of Lithuania. The aim of the research – to analyse the internal audit condition; to investigate produce methods and reasons of absence of internal audit; to give recommendations for improvement of the state and possibility of distribution of internal audit in enterprises of Lithuania. Objectives: * to formulate the definition of the internal audit, by results of theoretical questions connected with the concept of internal audit, definition; * to make the internal audit and the internal control comparative analysis, to define an influence of the internal audit on system of internal control, and to examine conception of internal auditor independence; * to give a classification of the internal audit by it type, and to examine it functions; * to analyse the history of internal audit appearance in Lithuania, and laws of internal audit; * to discover and to analyse stages of realization of internal audit; * to analyse internal audit condition in enterprises of Lithuania, by results of carried out research, and to give recommendations for improvement of condition of internal audit; * to determine reasons of internal audit absence in enterprises... [to full text]

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Risker är någonting som har stor påverkan på företagets lönsamhet. Riskerna kan gälla alltifrån finanskriser till medvetna fel från ledande befattningshavare eller medarbetare. Enron var en skandal som fick betydande konsekvenser i världen. USA införde en ny lagstiftning som en följd av det inträffade. Avsikten var att minska risken för bristande rapportering. Likt USA hade vi i Sverige drabbats. Vi valde att införa den så kallade ”Koden” som har liknande syfte som USA:s nya lagstiftning. Intresset för internkontroll har de senaste åren ökat. Det får anses som viktigt att företag inför en fungerande kontroll för att möta eventuella risker som kan påverka företagens möjligheter och mål. Företagen bör följa lagar och förordningar samt riktlinjer och uppsatta planer. Ett sätt kan vara att implementera COSOs modell, ett ramverk som fått en internationell spridning. En av beståndsdelarna, information &amp; kommunikation, är en grundläggande förutsättning för en effektiv internkontroll. Hela verksamheten måste vara informerad och arbeta åt samma mål för att det ska fungera på bästa sätt.   Syfte: Syftet är att skapa en ökad förståelse för onoterade företags interna kontroll samt implementering av informationen ut i verksamheten. Vidare är syftet att belysa vad betydelsen av god information och kommunikation innebär för företag. Slutligen önskas ge en insikt över hur företag med hjälp av en god internkontroll på bästa sätt nå uppsatta mål och minimera framtida oegentligheter.  Metod: Uppsatsens avgränsning utgörs av onoterade företag inom Västra Götalands län. Fokus i studien ligger på den kvalitativa metoden. Intresset var att få möjlighet till personliga möten där de intervjuade personerna kunde återge hur företaget aktivt arbetar med internkontroll samt hur de har valt att implementera information ut till sina medarbetare. Ett personligt möte gav oss möjlighet till mer intryck, då observationer kunde göras. Vidare används vetenskapliga artiklar samt läroböcker till det teoretiska avsnittet. Slutsats: Alla företag tillämpar internkontroll. Som tidigare studier visar är det mer eller mindre ett måste att ha någon slags kontroll över sin verksamhet. Vid framställningen av den interna kontrollen kan COSO-modellen vara till bra hjälp. Slutsatsen visar också betydelsen av information och kommunikation i företagens verksamhet.  Nyckelord: Internkontroll, COSO – modellen, Information &amp; kommunikation / Background and problems discussed: To succeed in the corporate world, it is important to be prepared for all the risks that can occur. These risks may include anything from financial crises to conscious errors from senior executives or employees. Enron was a scandal that made a significant impact on the world, which prompted the United States to introduce a new legislation. The intention was to reduce the risk of inadequate reporting. Like the U.S., Sweden also chose to introduce the so-called "Code", which has a similar purpose as the new U.S. legislation. The interests of internal control have increased in recent years. It is important that companies apply a well-functioning control to deal with any risks that may affect the companies’ abilities and goals. The companies should comply with laws, and set plans to help them to reach their goals. One way can be to implement the COSO model, a framework with international diversification. Communication is the key for effective internal control; the entire operation must be aware of guidelines, and work in the same direction to reach the companies’ goals. Purpose: The purposes are to create a greater understanding of the unlisted company’s internal controls and the implementation of information in the operations. Further, to illustrate what the importance of good information and communication means for the companies. Finally, to give an insight in how companies with a good internal controls best can reach the goals and minimize future frauds. Method: The delimitation of the thesis is non-listed companies within Västra Götaland, Sweden. The qualitative method has been used. Our interest was to have the opportunity for personals meetings. The respondents could reflect; how companies actively work with internal control, and how they have chosen to implement information to their employees. Personal meetings gave the opportunities for more impressions to observe how it looked in the operations. Further, scientific articles and textbooks have been used to the theoretical chapter. Conclusion: All companies applying internal control. As previous studies shows, it is more or less essential to have some kind of control over the operations. In the production of internal control, COSO model can be useful. The conclusion also shows the importance of information and communication in the business operations.   Keywords: Internal control, COSO – model, Information &amp; Communication

Internal control disclosures mandated by section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) are designed to provide information about a firm’s financial reporting quality and in doing so may offer information on firm-specific tax planning activities. Internal control weaknesses disclosed under SOX are frequently related to a firm’s tax function (Ge and McVay, 2005; Gleason, Pincus and Rego, 2010) and thus raise the question of whether or not these frequent problems affect corporate tax avoidance. In this thesis, I test hypotheses that tax-related disclosures, particularly those that contain company-level internal control weaknesses (ICWs), provide information with respect to long-run tax avoidance. Furthermore, I test hypotheses that the combination of internal control quality and aggressive tax avoidance aid in assessing shareholder returns. To conduct these tests, I collect and construct firm-level SOX disclosure data from 2004 to 2006 across 1,286 publicly-owned corporations. I begin with an empirical analysis of the association between tax avoidance and firm-level ICWs and generally find that the presence of tax ICWs and company-level tax ICWs constrain long-run tax avoidance. For firms with low cash constraints however, company-level tax ICWs appear to lead to an increase in tax avoidance. Nevertheless, subsequent analysis of monthly abnormal returns implies that the stock market reacts negatively to the disclosure of company-level tax ICWs, regardless of whether or not tax aggressiveness is also present. This thesis contributes to the literature by documenting the first evidence that internal control disclosures provide information regarding firm-level tax planning. Although the number of internal control weakness disclosures is decreasing over time, the availability of these SOX disclosures represents a previously unavailable opportunity to examine and further understand internal governance mechanisms within the firm and their influence on tax planning. In addition, this thesis further corroborates prior literature that argues for the importance of the pervasiveness of internal control weaknesses by showing that the pervasive, company-level tax internal control weaknesses are associated with tax avoidance and lower shareholder returns. Finally, my dissertation implies that the presence of tax internal control weaknesses constrains tax avoidance and thus a focus on improving internal controls could help improve the tax planning function. However, my firm-level analysis also implies that effective tax planning is a sustainable process and thus a firm and its stakeholders may require several periods before the full benefits of these improvements are realized.

O controle interno público no cenário brasileiro tem sido discutido tanto por órgãos reguladores quanto por pesquisas acadêmicas. Muito embora os órgãos reguladores estejam propondo novas estruturas para o controle interno, pesquisas recentes têm apontado para uma relativamente baixa efetividade na atuação desse sistema. Tal situação é influenciada pela falta de fatores que tenderiam a fortalecer a estrutura, como a existência de equipes qualificadas e a disponibilidade de informação. A presente pesquisa adiciona as práticas da lógica institucional tipificada como \"autonomia técnica\", desempenhadas por atores responsáveis por decisões no município, como Prefeito e Secretário de Controle Interno, como favoráveis ao controle interno. Tal situação legitimou o sistema de controle interno municipal perante os atores citados. Esta pesquisa utilizou a observação participante declarada em um município brasileiro. O município foi escolhido por ter passado por mudança de gestão de características predominantemente políticas para uma gestão com predominância de características técnicas. O estudo de caso demonstrou que o controle interno ganhou proeminência quando a liderança, prefeito e secretários, apresentavam características técnicas. Um dos motivos dessa atuação mais presente foi a lógica institucional do controlador e do prefeito, que se assemelha à lógica de autonomia técnica que então envolvia os servidores do sistema de controle. Outro fator observado foi o engajamento entre prefeito municipal e controlador, o que facilitou a participação do chefe do executivo no ambiente do controle interno. Desse modo, a lógica institucional de autonomia técnica, observada na liderança local, em conjunto com a interação ativa entre o prefeito municipal e controlador interno, foram vistas como essenciais para a mudança de atuação do controle interno no município em estudo. / Public internal control in Brazil has been discussed by both regulatory agencies and academic research. Although regulatory bodies are proposing new structures for the internal control, recent studies have pointed out to a relatively low effectiveness in the performance of this system. This situation has been influenced by the lack of some factors that would tend to strengthen the structure, such as the existence of qualified teams and the availability of information. The present research adds the practices of an institutional logic typified as \'technical autonomy\', performed by actors responsible for decision-making in the municipality, such as the mayor and the internal control\'s secretary, as favorable to internal control. This context enhanced the internal control legitimation towards the mentioned actors. This research adopted a declared participant observation in a Brazilian municipality. The municipality was chosen due to a management change from a predominantly political context to a predominance of a technical context. This research showed that the internal control had a greater prominence when the leadership, mayor and secretaries, presented technical characteristics. One of the reasons for this more present performance is the institutional logic of the controller and mayor, which is aligned to the technical autonomy logic also presented by the servants of the internal control department. Another factor observed was that the engagement between municipal mayor and controller made it easier for the chief executive to participate in the internal control daily activities. Thus, the technical autonomy institutional logic, observed in the local leadership, together with the active interaction between the municipal mayor and the internal controller, were seen as essential for the change in the internal control performance in this case study.