COVER STORY
Off-balance Sheet Transactions: No More Translucencies
-- Debdas Rakshit and Sujit Kumar Ghosh
Business corporations in their present form are relatively new forms of institutions, focusing themselves as the most influential ones within the contemporary societies in which they are operating. If a `quality' and `fair' report is not prepared, it promotes injustice to the investors, the other stakeholders, and also to themselves, ending up in stories like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Adelphia, Satyam and many others. The Indian Accounting Standards (IAS) followed by the corporations help in preparing high quality and transparent financial reports. This article attempts to explore the arrangements some corporations make to manipulate transactions, keeping them off the balance sheet and drawing relevance of different international accounting standards showing how they plug those clefts off.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
FINANCIAL REPORTING
Material Misstatements
-- CA Meena Lalchandani and CA Varun Khurana
Financial statements have been the basis of making sound business decisions and a source document of information for the government and non-government authorities since time immemorial. The article attempts to bring forth the different modes of carrying out financial statement frauds. The purpose of the article is to bring to light and educate upon some of the basic modes adopted for carrying out the statement frauds.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
FINANCIAL REPORTING
Financial Management Practice in a Cooperative Sugar Mill: A Case Study with NPKRRCSML
-- V Dheenadhayalan and R Devianbarasi
Financial management is that managerial activity which is concerned with the planning and controlling of the firm's financial resources and is also a vital area for the success of every business. This article attempts to study the financial management functions such as long-term asset mix, short-term asset mix and profitability in the cooperative sugar industry. For the purpose, Nadipisai Pulavar K R Ramasamy Cooperative Sugar Mill Ltd. (NPKRRCSML), was selected as the sample unit.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ACCOUNTING FOR INTANGIBLES
Valuation of Human Capital in India: An Assessment
-- Pradeep Kumar Singh and PK Pathak
In today's competitive era, knowledge and intangible assets are vital for the success of business enterprises. Most of the companies target return on investment, rather than return on knowledge and hence negligible efforts are taken by industries in this regard. However, in the last one decade, they have realized the importance of knowledge assets and their utility for the business organization. Now an attempt is being made to put a value to these intangibles, to highlight these hidden values to book, and identify human assets as one of the key intangible assets.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
FORENSIC ACCOUNTING
Forensic Accounting: A Targeted Approach of Accounting
-- Shallu Jain
A large number of corporate scandals all over the world have emphasized the need for forensic accountants. Forensic accounting is a term used everywhere, nowadays, as one can see their presence even in television serials. A forensic accountant is mainly a chartered accountant who applies his skills and training in investigations of various kinds of frauds and embezzlements. The title "Detectives Hunt for Cooked Books" in a newspaper itself gives the reason for the need of forensic accountants. In the present article, we will discuss about the functions performed by forensic accountants and their importance in the present era.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
IFRS Convergence for Banks in India: Challenges and Approaches
-- S Vijayalakshmi
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as a language of financial reporting, is gaining importance in the era of globalization. More than 100 countries from different parts of the globe are in the process of adopting IFRS. In India, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has recently released a paper on convergence with IFRS. The convergence with IFRS is likely to bring in significant challenges. The convergence may affect the net worth, capital and capital adequacy of the Indian banks. This article brings out the challenges and gives a road map for convergence.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Emerging Paradigms of Corporate Governance and Value Creations A Case Study of Hero Honda Limited
-- Manoj Pillai
Ethical issues play a very significant role in business today. The last decade has witnessed a number of scandals and controversies related to the ethical aspects of the business, with specific connection to accounting. These scandals have resulted in increased focus and concentration on ethics, especially on issues relating to accounting. Organizations are ranked on the basis of the measures taken by them for stakeholder value creation. This article analyzes the various facets of Governance and Value Creation Ratings and EVA and correlates it with the performance of Hero Honda Limited.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
SPEECH
Speech by SEC Commissioner: Combating Securities Fraud at Home and Abroad
-- Luis A Aguilar
Commissioner,
US Securities and Exchange Commission,
Atlanta, Georgia.
At times of economic hardship, fraudulent schemes are increasing rapidly. The role of accounting has changed from being a gatekeeper of auditing to promoting transparency of financial reporting. Forensic accountants need skills relating to investigation, litigation support and fraud detection. The vital steps taken by SEC, has compelled those contemplating fraud to think twice. Forensic accountants need to be very careful in the prevention and detection of financial frauds. Section 404 has been successful in focusing the attention of management on the effectiveness of a company's internal controls over financial reporting.
© 2009 US Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). Speech by Luis A Aguilar, Commissioner, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Conference Co-sponsored by Third Annual Fraud and Forensic Accounting Education Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, May 28, 2009. Reprinted with permission. |
