P3 Risk Management Questions and Answers

You are the management accountant for YY a food manufacturing company with an annual sales revenue of $6 million

You discover that the production manager's records are inconsistent Raw materials purchased do not agree with the total recorded for transfers to production plus wastage There is an average shortfall of 2% of purchases

You have investigated and discovered that there are often errors made during manufacturing that results in food that is safe to eat but. because of visual flaws, cannot be sold

The production manager is supposed to scrap all such damaged products and write all such losses off as waste You have discovered however that he has been giving the damaged food to a charity that assists homeless people No records are made of such gifts in order to conceal the losses due to manufacturing errors

Which of the following actions should you take? Select ALL that apply

An oil company has entered into a joint venture with a competing oil company to develop a new oil field. The joint venture arrangement is intended to mitigate the risks associated with developing the oil field.

The following disclosure appears in the oil company's risk report:

"Many of our large projects and operations are conducted through joint ventures. These arrangements involve complex risk allocation and indemnification arrangements and we have less control over these activities than we would have if we had full ownership and control. Our partners may have economic or business interests that are opposed to ours, and may exercise the right to block key decisions or actions. We believe the joint arrangement is in our best interest."

Which of the following statements are correct?

A UK manufacturing company has simultaneously:

   • purchased a put option to sell USD 1million at an exercise price of GBP1.00 = USD1.65

   • sold a call option that grants the option holder the right to buy USD 1million at a price of GBP1.00 = USD1.61 (this option has the same maturity date as the put).

Which of the following is a valid explanation for entering into these option positions?

B is a small retail bank that offers customers many on-the services B is keen to ensure sound security both to protect the bank's assets and also to safeguard customer privacy

B's IT Security Manager has suggested that the bank should use two phase authentication for access to the on-line systems

Which TWO of the following are examples of two phase authentication?

With regard to the internal audit department, which TWO of the following statements are correct?

Physical access controls can greatly enhance the security of company assets.

Select THREE methods by which physical access security can be significantly enhanced.

L's risk register currently states the likelihood of risks m terms of their estimated percentage probabilities. The risk committee cs considering classifying risks using a three point scale high, medium and low.

Which TWO of the following are true?

UIO designs clothes and pays third parties to manufacture them A recent television programme showed that two of the factories used by UIO were employing illegal immigrants whose status was used by the factory's owners to force them to work for low wages and in unpleasant and dangerous conditions. These factories were located in a developed country with strong labour laws

Classify each of the following statements as true or false:

H is a senior production manager for P Ltd which is about to make a strategic decision on setting up a new production line requiring $3 million of new specialist equipment.

H's daughter is friends with and goes to school with the daughter of T, the sales manager in KK Ltd. KK Ltd is a potential supplier of the specialist equipment that P Ltd requires.

T owns a holiday home. H's daughter regularly accompanies T's daughter on family vacations at this holiday home, all at T's expense.

H is the only person working for P Ltd who is qualified to select the specialist equipment. KK Ltd will definitely bid for the sale.

What should H do?

Which of the following actions would breach CIMA's Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants?

Which of the following are true of interest rate swaps?

The shares of a company have a beta factor of 1.15. Therefore, which of the following must be true?

Which method of quantifying risk exposure can be used to calculate the maximum loss on a portfolio occurring within a period of time with a given probability?

TRF is conducting a post completion audit on an investment in a pollution control machine that has reached the end of its five year useful life.

TRF could have been heavily fined if the machine had failed to keep pace with the output of emissions, measured in units. TRF's cost of capital is 10%. When the machine was purchased, there was a choice of three machines on the market:

TRF purchased the Big machine, but annual requirements only exceeded 600,000 once, in year 3, when 720,000 units of emissions were emitted.

Calculate the amount that the post completion audit shows TRF overpaid for the ownership costs associated with this machine.

Give your answer to the nearest whole $ (in $'000s).

Jo is a well known entrepreneur who founded JIS. a global producer or high technology equipment JIS has grown rapidly and was listed two years ago JIS's share price has grown steadily since its listing Jo serves as both CEO and Chair A recent newspaper article has suggested that JIS would benefit from having a separate CEO and Chair

Which TWO of the following arguments are valid?

G is an administrator who works for TRF TRF issues its staff with laptop computers that can be linked to the corporate network via Wi-Fi when they are working in the office Staff are permitted to work from home and can connect their company laptops to TRF's network via the internet in order to access files and send and receive emails

The software on G's laptop has not been updated for several months When G last updated the software it erased a draft report that he had been working on from his machine Ever since, whenever he logs in and is automatically offered the opportunity to install available updates he clicks the 'install later' option on his screen Some of the outstanding updates relate to the laptop's operating system and others to the software applications such as word processing and spreadsheet packages

Which TWO of the following are correct?

Company N is considering opening another production plant in Northland, a country 2000 km from its current production plant location N would also sell its products in Northland

Which TWO of the following are business risks'

James owns a small company which sometimes suffers from credit risk.

Which of the following measures should he put in place to help reduce this risk?

GHY is a listed company. Tom is GHY's CEO and Peter is its non-executive Chair of the Board. Tom and Peter both have substantial relevant business and industrial experience and both are believed to have considerable integrity. Tom and Peter quickly developed a good working relationship after Peter's appointment. They have become close friends.

Tom briefs Peter on every aspect of the business. Tom and Peter jointly agree the agenda for every board meeting and both agree on the manner in which matters will be presented to the board.

Taking account of the principles of good corporate governance, which of the following statements is correct?

H is a farmer.  An outbreak of a contagious animal disease has just been detected near the region where the farm is located. This could potentially lead to substantial financial losses for H.

In these circumstances, which of the following responses by H is the most appropriate?

E purchases parts for one of the machines it manufactures from Country X Place the risk classification next to the risk it relates to:

A Firewall is an element of a company's Information Technology infrastructure.

Which THREE of the following are characteristics of a Firewall?

M plc is an IT company that bids for large contracts to sell computer systems and also to service existing systems. M plc's senior management has always set budgets which are hard to achieve and have made no allowances for the recession.

The economy has improved and M plc's senior managers have made the budget even more optimistic. The budgeted sales target has been increased by 40%.

In the past, sales staff have not tried to achieve the budget sales because it was generally believed that the targets were impossible to reach.

M plc has recently appointed a new Sales Director who has decided that sales staff will be dismissed if they fail to meet sales targets for three successive months. He is also looking for higher sales margins than were achieved before.

What are the likely consequences of the new Sales Director's policy?

B uses a balanced scorecard to monitor the performance of its divisions.

Classify each of the following decisions taken by a division's management team as either commercially sound or dysfunctional.

H sells machinery and also associated services, such as advice and repairs. H's industry is going through considerable transformation.

Classify each of the examples of information available to H's management as strategic, operational or of having little value.

D has decided to invest in a new factory at a cost of $6,000,000. The discount rate of the project is 22% and the PV of tax shield is $80,000.

What is the IRR?

Give your answer to two decimal places.

Which of the following are true of an effective risk management culture?

YGH has recently completed a post completion audit on a five year contract that has only recently come to a conclusion. The main finding was that the project delivered most of the expected benefits, but that it cost significantly more to implement than had been anticipated at the project appraisal stage. YGH would not have proceeded if the true cost had been known at that stage.

The project was the responsibility of the production department, which is presently managed by G.

When the project was proposed, the production department was managed by H. H is now YGH's Director of Operations.

How should the finding from this post completion audit be interpreted?

R plc is considering an investment of $1,100,000 in a new machine which is expected to have substantial cash inflows over the next five years.

The annual cash flows from this investment and their probability are shown below:

Annual cash flow ($) Probability

 200,000                         0.4

 280,000                         0.5

 350,000                         0.1

At the end of its five-year life, the asset is expected to sell for $100,000. The cost of capital is 5%.

What is the Expected Net Present Value?

Give your answer to the nearest whole $.

Match the descriptions shown in the boxes below with the method of quantifying risk exposure it best describes.

P is a consulting firm that provides technical advice to the oil industry. The company has consulting teams that specialise in specific areas, namely drilling, off-shore, health and safety, oil well management and ng management. Each team's consultants are charged out to clients at the same daily rate.

The demand for different skill sets varies constantly due to factors such as movements in oil prices. Exploration increases when the oil price rises and there is a greater focus on maintaining existing wells when the price fans.

The performance of P's sales team is measured in terms of revenue, based on the number of consultancy days sold Frequently the sales team agree to contracts without first checking that the relevant consulting team has consultants available. The work then has to be undertaken by subcontractors at P's expense. Sub-contractors cost more and their use can also lead to P's own consultants being under-utilised when assignments could have been scheduled more efficiently.

Which TWO of the following would correct this behavior?

A publicly funded hospital has put various features in place in an attempt to improve strategic control and create an improved control environment.

Which TWO of the following features are most likely to meet this objective?

Which TWO of the following scenarios should be considered in strategic scenario planning by a publishing company that specialises in academic textbooks?

MNB is a multinational IT company with headquarters in Asia and with operations in all continents.

MNB is attempting to expand its operations in Europe. This is seen as a major challenge as the European market is very well developed and highly competitive.

MNB develops and manufactures its own products. Parts and assemblies are sourced across Asia, America and Europe. These are sometimes purchased locally as a condition of a contract, but MNB aims to include as much of its own equipment as possible. Transfer prices between MNB's subsidiaries can be set in YEN, USD, EURO, GBP. Transfer prices are revised every month in line with production times as most goods are made on short order with sales cycles running at 3-4 months.

What types of risk are being presented here?

Company W produces mobile phone components and has recently tendered for a substantial contract. The results of the tendering process will not become available until three months from now. If the company is successful it will require 2,000 units of a commodity which is currently traded in an open commodity market for $740 per unit. However, there has been speculation that this commodity could increase substantially in price over the next three months and so the company is considering purchasing the commodity now and storing it for three months.

The funds to buy the commodity would be borrowed at an annual interest rate of 7% and the storage cost of the product would be $5.40 per unit per month. The storage costs would be paid at the end of the three month storage period.

Which of the following represents the gain or loss (to the nearest thousand dollars) that will accrue to Company W assuming that the price of the commodity rises to $800 in three months' time?

A company has a sound system of internal controls that have been reviewed by the internal audit department.

Which TWO of the following correctly identify reasons why the company's control system might fail to prevent or detect an irregularity?

JKL makes large export sales to customers in country X, whose currency fluctuates significantly against JKL's home currency JKL also makes large purchases from suppliers in countrrOC All of these transactions are in country X's currency

JKL's treasurer does not actively hedge currency risks because there is a natural hedge in place due to the company making both sales and purchases in the same currency

JKL's board has instructed the treasurer to put active hedging measures in place because the risk report would otherwise have to disclose the fact that JKL has a currency risk which is not actively hedged

Which of the following statements are correct? Select ALL that apply.

ABC is a large supermarket chain which also has online shopping and home deliveries It has a 24/7 service which runs on a central server allowing all customers to enter new orders at any time This is a business critical service which, if not available, may lead to customers turning to alternative supermarket chains offering similar services, resulting in immediate turnover loss and possible long term customer loss.

ABC is contemplating the implementation of a hot standby facility, not only to cover for emergency disaster recovery, but also to allow for business continuity, allowing necessary maintenance and updates without service interruption.

Which of the following cybersecurity objectives is ABC concerned about in this scenario?

HWG is a large company which grows and processes coffee The coffee is sold to supermarkets, branded with their names for sale as "own brand" products HWG brands and packages the coffee using the supermarkets' own designs

HWG's directors are considering a strategic proposal to develop a range of coffees to be sold under a brand that HWG will develop

Which TWO of the following should the directors consider as part of their strategic analysis?

ABC has recently appointed a Chief Information Officer who has announced that he wants to start a major clean up starting with all desktop and laptop equipment.

Which THREE of the following measures should be adopted to help enhance security'?

A project has a net present value of $2 million.

Total cash outflows of this project have a present value of $14 million, which includes staff costs of $10 million.

What is the project's sensitivity to staff costs?

The government health service in country H employs well over 100,000 staff in various locations throughout the country. Traditionally, local management has had high levels of autonomy in relation to personnel issues and there are several different human resources (HR) managers located across various regions.

The government has decided to introduce a completely new HR/payroll information system to have just one database containing all relevant information about every staff member on the payroll (start date, job title, salary and all other details) and to use this information to begin streamlining recruitment and HR policies.

The government has outsourced the system's development to a reputable company.

Which of the following are disadvantages associated with this IT project?

YUI owns 18 factories, which are spread around the country. Each factory employs 500-700 production staff and has its own administrative and accounts departments.

It has recently been discovered that the manager in charge of YUI's Hightown factory has been overstating his personal expenses claims for the past five years. The total amount stolen in this manner has been estimated at $10,000.

Why would it have been relatively difficult to have prevented this fraud?

Rio owns an architects business which employs 12 skilled architects and four administrative staff.

The Office Manager has just attended a workshop on internal controls and the way in which they can improve organisations. He intends to implement some internal controls as soon as possible.

What are the limitations of an internal control system in Rio's business?

Which of the following statements concerning the use of balanced scorecards to measure divisional performance is correct?

Smalltown had a problem with people parking cars on the town's mam shopping streets instead of in the nearby car parks The parked cars created congestion and made it difficult for delivery vehicles to unload Smalltown's local government had employed traffic wardens to enforce parking regulations by issuing parking fines to motorists who parked for more than the permitted 30 minutes.

The local government took further action to deal with this problem It banned parking on the busiest streets, it introduced parking charges in the remaining streets and it made it free to park m the town's car parks for up to two hours Fewer people now park cars on the streets because of the charges, but those who do generate significant revenues for the local government Fewer traffic wardens are required and so wage costs have reduced

The local goverment auditors have decided to carry out a value for money audit of the parking system

Which of the following is a measure of effectiveness?

An oil company has entered into a joint venture with a competing oil company to develop a new oil field. The joint venture arrangement is intended to mitigate the risks associated with developing the oil field.

The following disclosure appears in the oil company's risk report:

"Many of our large projects and operations are conducted through joint ventures. These arrangements involve complex risk allocation and indemnification arrangements and we have less control over these activities than we would have if we had full ownership and control. Our partners may have economic or business interests that are opposed to ours, and may exercise the right to block key decisions or actions. We believe the joint arrangement is in our best interest."

Which of the following statements are correct?