Reference no: EM132419022 , Length: 1500 Words

PACC6004 Financial Accounting Assignment - The University of Newcastle, Australia

PURPOSE -

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of the corporate entity and be aware of the concepts, statutory requirements and other authoritative influences that underpin accounting and reporting in the Australian regulatory environment.

2. Explain the issues surrounding contemporary accounting controversies.

3. Evaluate solutions for accounting problems in diverse contexts using social, ethical, economic, regulatory and global perspectives.

ASSIGNMENT - Research Based Report - Corporate Governance

As a new accounting graduate, you have just joined the financial reporting unit of a company. Your company is listed in Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) approaches you with your first task.

In the last Board meeting, directors of your company are concerned about issues related to reporting on corporate governance. It is particularly noted that the Corporate Governance Council's Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (the Fourth Edition) was released on 27 February 2019 and takes effect for a listed entity's first full financial year commencing on or after 1 January 2020. Therefore, the Board decided to have a review of relevant issues.

Required: Based on the Board's decision, the CFO asks you to prepare a business research report addressed to the Board of Directors on the following three parts:

(1) Critically analyse complexities and key issues involved in TWO major changes in the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (the Fourth Edition). This recently issued document can be found on the Corporate Governance Council's website.

(2) Critically analyse to what extent corporate governance of your company can be enhanced in response to EACH of the TWO major changes in the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (the Fourth Edition) that you identify in part (1). In your analysis, you should refer to your company's most recent Corporate Governance Statement.

(3) With respect to the TWO identified major changes, compare the most recent Corporate Governance Statement of your company and that of an industry peer. Based on the comparison, evaluate your company's corporate governance relative to that of the industry peer.

You need to select ONE company from the following list as your company and use the corresponding industry peer for your answer to part (3).

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA -

- Ability to explain key corporate governance and sustainability issues and relevant theories.

- Analyse the corporate governance and sustainability issues faced by the company;

- You need to support your analyses of corporate governance and sustainability issues with references/citations from credible sources that you may have read from academic journals or books.

- Coherence and organisation of the report including referencing, spelling, grammar, and formatting.

Length: 1,500 words maximum (excluding cover page, table of contents, executive summary, references and appendices).