Revenue Recognition Changes Caused Fraud - 1139 Words

Revenue Recognition Changes Caused Fraud There were 347 alleged cases of fraud involving public company according to Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1998-2007 sponsored by Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO, 2010) that were investigated by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 2010, which is showing 53 increased in the number of fraud when compared to the 1987-1997 study (p.5). COSO’s result is a sad number in a 10 year period, which averaging close to 35 accounting frauds a year (p.5). COSO’S study shows out of the nearly 350 financial frauds investigated 60% were identified to involved improper revenue recognition and 89% were recognized the CEOs and/or CFOs involvement (p.5). COSO’s research†¦show more content†¦The extent of opportunity, weakness, loopholes and gaps throughout the FASB GAAP codification on revenue recognition had to be tremendous to be able to effortlessly cook the books, as COSO’s study divulge CEOs and CFOs engineered o r perpetrated most financial statement frauds (p.5). Accounting Principles The famous accounting scandals of late 1900s and early 2000s believed to cause the legislation, the SEC and FASB to issue changes and updates on its accounting principles on revenue recognition topics. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA, 2002) outlined, AU Section 316 and Statement on Auditing Standard No. 99 (SAS 99) Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, as a guide for auditors to focus on two broad areas of fraud such as the fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets (p. 1722). The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, 1999) Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB 101), Revenue Recognition in Financial Statements, states that revenue is realized or realizable and earned or recognize when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exist, delivery has occurred or services has been rendered, seller’s price to the buyer is fixed or determinable and collectability is reasonably assured (topic13). Any one of the (SAB 101) criteria ne eds to be meet before the company can recognize revenue (topic 13). FASB ASC 606 new guidance on the requirements for determination of revenue from contracts with customers (topic 606), as

Cell Phones in the Hands of Drivers - 1096 Words

Cell Phones in the Hands of Drivers: A Risk or a Benefit? As of 2000, there were about ninety million cell phone users in the United States, with 85% of them using their phones while on the road (Sundeen 1). Because of evidence that cell phones impair drivers by distracting them, some states have considered laws restricting their use in moving vehicles. Proponents of legislation correctly point out that using phones while driving can be dangerous. The extent of the danger, however, is a matter of debate, and the benefits may outweigh the risks. Unless the risks of cell phones are shown to outweigh the benefits, we should not restrict their use in moving vehicles; instead, we should educate the public about the dangers of driving while†¦show more content†¦Matt Sundeen reports that drivers with cell phones place an estimated 98,000 emergency calls each day and that the phones â€Å"often reduce emergency response times and actually save lives† (1). The phones have business benefits too. According to transportation engineer Ri chard Retting, â€Å"Commuter time is no longer just for driving. As the comforts of home and the efficiency of the office creep into the automobile, it is becoming increasingly attractive as a work space† (Kilgannon 23). Car phones also have personal benefits. A mother coming home late from work can check in with her children, a partygoer lost in a strange neighborhood can call for directions, or a teenager whose car breaks down can phone home. Unless or until there is clear evidence of a direct link between cell phone use and traffic accidents, the government should not regulate use of cell phones while driving. A better approach is to educate the public to the dangers of driving while distracted and to enforce laws on negligent and reckless driving. Educational efforts can work. In the last twenty years, government and private groups have managed to change the driving habits of Americans. Seat belts are now regularly worn, people commonly appoint designated drivers when a group is drinking, small children are almost always put in safety seats, and most drivers turn on their headlights in rainy weather. Enforcing laws against negligent andShow MoreRelatedCell Phones in the Hands of Drivers: a Risk or Benefit?1570 Words   |  7 PagesCell Phones in the Hands of Drivers A Risk or a Benefit Ariana Laguna English 102 Professor Barnes/Walter 10 December 2012 Outline THESIS: Unless the risks of cell phones are shown to outweigh the benefits, we should not restrict their use in moving vehicles: instead, we should educate the public about the dangers of driving while phoning and prosecute irresponsible phone users under laws on negligent and reckless driving. I. Scientific studies havent proved a link between use ofRead MoreThe Effects Of Cell Phone Use On Driving Performance And Safety1205 Words   |  5 PagesAneci Persuitti ENGC 1101 SEC 43 December 15, 2014 The Effects of Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance and Safety As technology advances, people are relying on it more and more. Cell phones have literally become a necessity. Every day on the roads, people are driving and using their cell phones to talk, text, browse the internet, use GPS, etc. According to the International Telecommunication Union, â€Å"the number of mobile-cellular subscriptions worldwide is approaching the number of people on earthRead MoreDangers of Cell Phone Use While Driving Essay1306 Words   |  6 Pageslast few decades, the use of cell phones has become a very common tool. Furthermore, Technology has certainly advanced, and the cell phone is becoming the most preferred mode of communication. The demand for a cell phone is growing every day. In addition, the use of wireless technology is affordable, and anyone can buy a cell phone at a reasonable price. They come in all shapes and sizes. They range from black to bright metallic white. American public use of cell phones is increasing everyday. AsRead MoreWhy Drivin g and Cell Phones Do Not Mix Essay1544 Words   |  7 Pageson a cell phone while driving is careless and extremely dangerous not only to the driver but also to others to others driving on the road as well. Cell phones cause distraction while trying to drive, and people are no longer just talking on their cell phones, they are also text messaging, and surfing the worldwide web. Many believe that hands-free devices could be a solution to this problem, but the fact is hands free devices are just as dangerous to use while driving as hand held cell phones. BecauseRead MoreEssay on Death by Cell-Phone1531 Words   |  7 PagesDeath by Cell-Phone Imagine being in the passenger seat of a car on a quiet street in Atlanta. At about 4:00 A.M. a cell phone begins to ring; then the driver reaches down to grab the phone. Within the next few moments, the driver loses control of the car. The car wraps around a telephone poll. This isn’t a dream. In fact, it was reality for model Niki Taylor in May of 2001. According to the USA Today, Niki Taylor was seriously injured in this accident with extensive damage to her liver andRead MoreCell Phones While Driving Essay642 Words   |  3 PagesCell Phones and Driving In today’s society we’ve all become attached to our cell phones. Cell phones make our lives easier in many ways we can check our email, receive phone calls, send text messages, listen to music, and take pictures, all at our finger tips. With all this convenience, however there is a dangerous side to cell phones, and that’s when we use them while driving. Most of us are guilty of using cell phones while driving, but have we ever thought about its danger? Five states plusRead MoreUse Of Cell Phones While Driving860 Words   |  4 PagesAmericans rely heavily on cell phones to perform daily activities. Cell phone are used for phone calls, email, sending text messages, surfing the internet, and performing other tasks. It is unfortunate that many of these daily activities occur while a person is driving. As a result, an increase of accidents and fatalities have occurred because of the use of cellular phones while driving. Using a cell phone while driving is an epidemic that has taken our nation by storm. Most drivers believe they can safelyRead MoreNo Call or Text Is Worth a Life1540 Words   |  7 PagesSpeech 4/5/2013 No Call or Text is Worth a Life Using a handheld cell phone could be one of the deadliest decisions you could make while operating a motor vehicle. The dangers and impact of using a cell phone while behind the wheel are numerous. One of the main reasons people still use their cell phones while driving is that there is no consistency in the laws across the country. Certain states have legislation that bans cell phone use, while other states only ban certain usage situations. ToughRead MoreIncrease Public Safety And Prevent Unnecessary Risks Behind The Wheel While Operating A Motor Vehicle1398 Words   |  6 Pagespurpose of this proposal is to increase public safety and prevent unnecessary risks behind the wheel while operating a motor vehicle. Drivers have a duty to themselves and to the public to operate their vehicles in a safe manner free from distraction. The safest way to ensure against distraction and preserve everyone’s well-being is to abstain from all cell phone usage including dialing, talking, o r texting while operating a vehicle. According to the National Safety Council, motor vehicle crashesRead MoreBan On Cell Phone Use911 Words   |  4 PagesA Ban on Cell Phone Use With the occurrence of an extreme emergency, the best thing to do would be to call 911. Without a cell phone, the options become limited to a small number. In a life or death situation, most would like to increase the chances of survival, and that can be more easily achieved with a cell phone. Calling for help would not be possible if cell phones were prohibited while driving. In some cases, many wouldn’t bring their phones with them, in order to avoid a ticket. While beneficial

Strategy of National Bank Australia

Question: Discuss about the Strategy of National Bank Australia. Answer: Introduction NAB is the national Australian bank in Australia that is ranked as forty first largest banks in the world. It is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalization and finance. The branches of NAB are spread across not only Australia but also New Zealand, it operates 1,590 branches and service centers in the two countries. The strategies used by the company affects the working of the company. Strategies of the company play an essential role in the management of the organization. The companys success depends on its strategies. Proper formulation of strategies helps the organization achieve its goals, mission and objectives. Competitors play an essential role in determining the strategies for the company (Bratton and Gold 2012). Various external and internal factors affect the working of the business. SWOT and PESTELL analysis tool is used to conduct an analysis. The focus of the company should be on the strength and opportunities that should be used for the advantage of the company while its weakness and threats are used to improve the performance of the company. The bank is spread across two geographic regions and organized into eight divisions. The company aims at achieving competitive advantage by properly formulating the strategies. Mission, vision and competitive advantages The main aim of the bank is guide and serves people financial. It aims at becoming the leading bank for people. The values and mission covers the daily aspect of consolidated entity. The motto of the bank is not just money but also more than money. The vision of the institution is to emerge as the successful bank in the world. The companys mission is to solve the queries that the customers face regarding the utilization of money not only in present but as a future perspective as well. It also includes providing high quality service to its customers and builds a permanent relationship of trust with them. The mission of the financial institution is to make a positive contribution towards the preservation of the environment and the society. It not only aims at increasing the customer satisfaction but also employee satisfaction by proving good working environment and condition to them (Ferguson 2015). Profitability also plays essential role for the bank, as their motto is to maximize pro fit by utilizing the available resources. It is a peoples bank and aims at increasing the value of customers. National Australia Bank aims at helping the customers with guidance, help and advice so that the customers are able to get good financial outcomes. Te tagline or slogan of the bank is A little word for a big life; More give, less take(Nab.com.au 2016). The main aim of the company is to achieve competitive advantage. The financial institution provides much service such as wealth management plan, banking and investment planning services. Company also provides debt and risk management and investment products to its clients (Hoovers.com 2016). The competitors of National Bank of Australia are Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group limited and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The service provided by National Bank Australia also includes internet banking, loans, credit cards, debit cards and calculators. The other competitors of the bank are HSBC, Bank of America and Citigroup. Surviving the competition for the new firms become difficult due to rise in the number of competitors. The brand loyalty for the company and the product is strong that helps the organization achieve competitive advantage. Strategies used by National Australia Bank The strategy of National Bank of Australia has not changes over the years and the company follows the same strategies as stated by the CEO of the bank. The bank aims at delivering quality service and experience to its customers. It aims at becoming as the worlds leading bank and emerge as the most respectable bank in Australia and New Zealand. The institute provides various banking services through various channels such as nab trade, NAB broker, Ubank and NAB (Metcalfe 2013). The approach of the company towards corporate social responsibility is to affect the society and environment in a positive way. The firm believes in building a stronger relationship with its stakeholders and customers. The main expertise field of banks includes education, agriculture, health, property and government. The bank provides loans increase education and improve the health of the people in a community. Australian banking sector of National Australia Bank includes fixed income, debt markets, Currencies a nd Commodities (FICC), asset servicing and treasury and specialized finance (Prez et al. 2013). The contribution of the bank towards the corporate social responsibility is immersive. The National Bank of Australia works with four hundred communities and organizations every year. It also takes part in twenty two thousand activities voluntarily. The bank had established a village of are five hundred millimeter square in February 2014. Every year the bank holds meeting and gatherings where the customers of banks can put forward their query. The main aim is to connect with clients and customers through these meetings. The meeting areas includes, meeting room, drop-in desk as well as casual areas like the garden and the square. The company conducts an exclusive research before formulating the strategies. The research contributes to programmes that focused on leadership and critical issues (Nab.com.au 2016). The strategy of the bank is to help the people with the management of their money. The company employs 35,000 employees that services approximately 10 million customers. It not o nly deals with larges business houses also helps the small and medium business enterprise achieve their goals and objectives. Its strategy is based on innovation and is inclusive in nature. Criticism of the strategies used by NAB There have been many criticisms of the business practices that the company has pursued in the recent years. The company was accused for the unethical behavior in the past. There have been reasons for rise in the controversies and criticism faced by the company. National Bank of Australia faced the pangs of criticisms for various reasons. Tax evasion and customer overcharging: one of the most controversial issued faced by national Bank of Australia was of tax evasion and overcharging of interests from its customers. This was done by one of subsidiaries of the bank that is the National Irish Bank in 1988. The research from the Irish High court suggested that the bank was involved in a scandal of tax evasion and making money through unnecessary means. This also included unethical finding of loans (Yeates 2014). The employees of National Australia Bank has been engaged is systematic misconduct. The inspection found that an employee of the National Bank of Australia was advertising and encouraging the retirees to invest in the financial plan of the National bank of Australia that was actually not the part of the bank. The employee of the bank suggested the clients of NAB to invest in BSI Corp that was not a NAB approved financial plan. A single director of the firm transferred Six thousand two hundred million dollars from the oversea account to the personal account (Powell and DiMaggio 2012). These funds were used by the bank to improve and recover the failed business operations. The employee of the organization was found to be included in a fraud where the peoples money was utilized for unfair means. Various questions were raised on the British Market of National Bank of Australia due to the scandals and frauds that the bank is included in. Company has faced many losses due to the scandals t hat it is included in. Many employees had lost the job due to the scandal that the bank was involved. To compensate they may have to pay a lump sum amount of 3 billion and 4 billion (Dinham 2014). National Bank of Australia was also charged for involving in unethical practices. The bank was charged for giving loans to the industries that were involved in damaging the environment. In 2008, the bank was charged for providing A$11.2 billion to the fossil fuel industry that was involved in extracting green house gases that was harmful for the environment. Concerns and controversies has been raised by the Australian community for providing loans to the industry. This also includes use of ATM that harms the environment. National Australia Bank for such kinds of illegal practices has done more than 20 billion dollars of investments. Wilma one of the customers of The National Bank of Australia is found to be conducting illegal activities in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Australian bank has been found funding Wilma and indirectly involved in the illegal activities. The environmental impact for such banks has been drastic and National Australia Bank is a part of such drastic steps (Jones 2012). The above analysis shows that despite of being one of the four leading financial institutions in Australia the bank has been charged for various reasons. National bank of Australia has claimed to be non guilty of the controversies raised against the bank. However, the data and the inspections show that bank is involved in scams and scandals. It is essential for the organizations to keep a close check in its functioning and keep an eye on employees behavior and attitude. Activities should be properly checked before getting into a partnership and business venture with other organizations and businesses. SWOT analysis Analysis the strengths and weaknesses of the firms is essential to examine the exterior and internal factors that affects the commerce. SWOT analysis is a tool that is used to analyze the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of the company. Helpful Harmful Internal factors Strengths: The bank has a good brand name and is finically strong. The revenue of the bank is high and is major player in the Australian market. It is involved in proving diverse products and services to its customers. In terms of assets it is the largest financial institution in Australia (Joshi et al. 2013). Weaknesses: Controversies and criticisms against the bank lead to a de line in the profit of the bank. Decline in revenue affects the growth and development of bank. The number of global acclaims is less despite of the bank being spread across the globe. External factors Opportunities: The bank has an opportunity to spread to in other countries. It also has an opportunity to diversify the portfolios for customers. The bank is recognized internationally that will help the company strengthen its position globally. Threats: The major threats are from the competitors. Change in government rules and regulation increases the threats for the bank. This includes recession and fall in the demand and investments of the product in the market (Gagnon and Karolyi 2012). PESTLE analysis The external factors affecting the working of the business is analyzed using Pestle analysis. Political/legal factors: The Company should ensure that the functioning of the company complies with the legal rules and standards. Changes in government rules and regulations greatly affect the working of company. For example open market operations by government greatly affects the interests rate that the bank charges. Australia is politically stable. Economic factors: The economic factors such as price, GDP, growth rate and interest rate affect the functioning of the company. Fluctuations in demand, supply, investment, money supply and other factors affect the rates charged by the bank. Since Australia is a developed country, economic conditions are favorable for the banks. Social factors: lifestyle of people, income, status, age, sex, behavior, attitude and psychology greatly affects the working of business. The bank has committed to adhere to a number of protocols that supports human rights. It is involved in corporate social responsibility programmes and aims at improving the society (Bryant 2012). Technological factors: technology plays a great role in the working of business. The company utilizes technology and devices to connect to its consumers and promote the product. This is done through channeling and distribution of products through e-commerce. The research and development technique is also efficient and is used to extract the useful information. Environmental factors: The bank aims at improving the environmental condition. National Australia Bank has funded the Environmental Upgrade Agreement (EUA) in the year 2015 for the commercial office buildings (Shamsuddin and Xiang 2012). Specific environment Consumers Citizens of Australia, The Australian traders, The bank account holders Partners NAB aimed to develop a partnership with the merchant customers, Global leaders Verifone systems Industry Banking organizations Unions Stakeholders as well as the financial sector of Australia Competitors Westpac Banking organization, commonwealth bank of Australia etc. Suppliers Investments corporations and the larger banking sectors of Australia. Internal environment Process Pareto chart process, quality activities deployment etc. System Making of loans and the acceptance of the deposits Workers Number of total workers in NAB are 35063 Management Control the operation of wealth management along with the risk management and the relationship management. Organizational culture and leadership style Organizational culture is the behavior and attitude that an employees in an organization hold. Leadership style is the style that the leaders at an organization hold to manage the works effectively. The CEO of the National bank of Australia Andrew Thoburn is one of the most inspiring leaders that the employees and the customers look upon. The personality of the CEO of the bank is good and is very confident while voicing his opinion in front of the media. The bank follows the transformational leadership style (Alvesson 2012). Transformational leadership style is a leadership style where the leaders coordinate with the subordinates to create a vision and formulate strategies to achieve the goals and objectives. This helps the bank keep the employees happy and involved in the decision making of the organization. The leadership skills and behaviors of the CEO are very inspiring and motivational. The company maintains a formal relationship with its employees and maintains the corporate cu lture. The straightforward approach of Andrew Thorburn and the leadership style has been beneficial for the bank internally as well as externally (Hargreaves and Fink 2012). It is categorized as functional organizational structure where the work is divided based on functions and specialization. The responsibility of leaders in an organization is to maintain talent, competition and train the employees in such a way to lead to a situation of win. The cultural values play an essential role in the company. This includes strong work culture and high work values of honesty and integrity. Conclusion The report concludes that the Bank goes through both the good and bad phase in its operation. The strategies formulated by the bank is to achieve the competitive advantage and become the leading world in Australia. The organizational culture is very formal where the leaders maintain a friendly relationship with its employees. References Alvesson, M., 2012.Understanding organizational culture. Sage. Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012.Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Bryant, L., 2012. An assessment of development funding for new housing post GFC in Queensland, Australia.International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis,5(2), pp.118-133. Dinham, A.2014.Banks accused of links with unethical overseas practices. [online] sbs.com.au. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/28/banks-accused-links-unethical-overseas-practices [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Ferguson, A. 2015.More woes for National Australia Bank as Senator Sam Dastyari enlists British help. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/more-woes-for-national-australia-bank-as-senator-sam-dastyari-enlists-british-help-20150323-1m5mg0.html [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Gagnon, L. and Karolyi, G.A., 2012. The economic consequences of the US Supreme Courts Morrison v. National Australia Bank decision for foreign stocks cross-listed in US markets.National Australia Bank Decision for Foreign Stocks Cross-Listed in US Markets (September 17, 2012). Johnson School Research Paper Series, (50-2011). Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D., 2012.Sustainable leadership(Vol. 6). John Wiley Sons. Hoovers.com, 2016.!company_name! Names of Competitors. [online] Hoovers.com. Available at: https://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/competition.national_australia_bank_limited.24f02479e08cb0ca.html [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Jones, G. ed., 2012.Banks as Multinationals (RLE Banking Finance). Routledge. Joshi, M., Cahill, D., Sidhu, J. and Kansal, M., 2013. Intellectual capital and financial performance: an evaluation of the Australian financial sector.Journal of intellectual capital,14(2), pp.264-285. Metcalfe, B., 2013. The Market Potential of Australia s New Foreign Banks.European Journal of Marketing. Nab.com.au, 2016.About us. [online] Nab.com.au. Available at: https://www.nab.com.au/about-us [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Nab.com.au, 2016.Executive Leadership Team. [online] Nab.com.au. Available at: https://www.nab.com.au/about-us/our-business-at-a-glance/executive-leadership-team [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Nab.com.au, 2016.NAB partners with VeriFone for payments innovation. [online] Nab.com.au. Available at: https://www.nab.com.au/about-us/media/media-releases-2012/nab-partners-with-verifone-for-payments-innovation [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016]. Prez, A., Martnez, P. and Del Bosque, I.R., 2013. The development of a stakeholder-based scale for measuring corporate social responsibility in the banking industry.Service Business,7(3), pp.459-481. Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio, P.J. eds., 2012.The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press. Shamsuddin, A. and Xiang, D., 2012. Does bank efficiency matter? Market value relevance of bank efficiency in Australia.Applied Economics,44(27), pp.3563-3572. Yeates, C. 2014.Andrew Thorburn, NAB's new straight shooter with a messianic touch. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/andrew-thorburn-nabs-new-straight-shooter-with-a-messianic-touch-20140711-zt40k.html [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016].

Wuthering Heights Essay Example For Students

Wuthering Heights Essay The Power of FateFate, a term which seems to appear every so often in the everyday world, can be a powerful force when dealing with the predetermination of events. Whether in the past, present or future, fate can change how things were, or are supposed to be. As William Jennings Byran, a famous military colonel, once said, â€Å"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is not a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing which is to happen.† Fate cannot be altered and is something which must happen to everyone and everything. As is the case with Thomas Hardy’s novel, Return of the Native. Without the element of fate, the plot of Return of the Native would have drastically changed because most of the events included in the plot would not have taken place. Every happening in the novel was important in adding to the plot and having its own significance, which made the novel the great story which it was and still is. Whether it was the deaths of Mrs. Yo ebright, Eustacia, and Damon, or the other significant parts included in the plot, fate was reason for every one of them occurring. We will write a custom essay on Wuthering Heights specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The plot to the novel begins about the time Eustacia discovers that Clym Yoebright is returning to the countryside. Since Clym was a diamond merchant, Eustacia believed that he could get her out of the Heath, Eustacia’s home and the very place she wants to flee. Believing that Damon, the man she is having a relationship with, would not be able to accomplish this task for her, she turns to Clym. The person who can very well be her ticket out of her homeland. Since this was meant to happen for Eustacia, it was her fate for Clym to return to the moors. By this happening, it creates the conflict between Mrs. Yoebright and her son Clym. When Clym begins to spend most of his time with Eustacia, his mother gets jealous and gives him an ultimatum of choosing between her and Eustacia. With him not making a decision, Mrs. Yoebright tells her son to cease living in the same household as her. With fate starting this conflict, when Clym came back home to the Moors, the same reason was to b lame for the separation between the two characters. The reason being is that none of the characters could have prevented this from happening, simply because it was meant to be. With all these things happening, they set the fate for the three characters which die because of the unalterable events which cause them to occur. Firstly, the death of Mrs. Yoebright was a direct result of Fate because of how it came to Mrs. Yoebright attempting the walk to her son’s home to make amends with him. Before this could happen, there had to be a string of events which made it her fate that she dies. These events began with the gambling of the inheritance money that Mrs. Yoebright gave to Christien to deliver to Clym and his cousin. The reason for her doing that was to try to get Clym to forgive her for throwing him out of her home, but of course, as the saying goes, â€Å"what might go wrong, can and will.† On the way to deliver the money, Christien runs into a group bound for gambling, where he enters a lottery and wins. This encourages Christien to bet the inheritance with Damon Wildeve, since he believes that he will go on a lucky winning streak. After winning the money from Christien, Damon is challenged by Diggory Venn, who in turn, wins the money from Wildeve. Fate takes a hold of Mrs. Yoebright, when she doesn’t hear from her son after believing that he had received the money. The reason for her going to visit Clym. But when nobody answers the door and she leaves disappointed to make the long walk back home, when she faints and dies of an Adder bite. Mrs. Yoebright could not have done anything to change what happened to her, because it just was supposed to happen the way it did. With the death of Mrs. Yoebright, it was Eustacia and Damon’s turns to be engulfed by Fate, causing both of their deaths. This occurs from the point of when Eustacia is upset at herself for most likelihood, causing the death of Mrs. Yoebright by not allowing her in the house, because she had Damon over. .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .postImageUrl , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:hover , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:visited , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:active { border:0!important; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:active , .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u6144079b104f3a1702bee6215018a89e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Effect of WWII on the Visual Arts. EssayTo try to console herself, Eustacia decides to go to a dance where she meets up with Damon and finds out about his newly acquired wealth. This rekindles Eustacia’s interest in Wildeve and she believes that he can now get her out of her homeland by asking him to take her to Paris. At this point their fates are already set, for they both have no idea of what awaits them from this decision. When they attempt to runaway together the next night, Clym and Damon’s wife, Thomasin, try to locate them among the Heath. But when Clym finds Damon waiting for Eustacia, the finales to their fates occur when Eustacia falls into the river, because it is when the climax to the novel occurs as well. When Clym and Damon jump into the water to save Eustacia from drowning, Damon dies along with Eustacia in the rescue effort. Luckily for Clym, Fate had it that Diggory Venn was around when they jumped, because if he wasn’t, Clym would have not been rescued by him and most likely would have perished along with Eustacia and Damon. From the beginning of the novel, Eustacia and Damon were bound to either live or die together, but since both of those things cannot coincide with each other, only one could prevail in the presence of Fate. Since death was their final outcome, it left a few more things to be decided by Fate, such as the marriage of Thomasin and Diggory, which would not have occurred had Damon survived the jump into the river. With Damon gone, and Thomasin left alone, Diggory takes the chance to restart the relationship with her, which they once had in the past. With both of them at one time having a re lationship with one another, and then parting ways for a long time, it was only the work of Fate that brought them back together once again. Author Henry Miller once said, every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him. A good interpretation of what happened with the characters of Thomasin and Damon, because even though they believed that their time together had ended, Fate proved them wrong by reuniting them in the end. As the most famous playwright of all time, William Shakespeare said, it is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves. Destiny, or Fate, is something which is predetermined and cannot and will not ever, by any person or thing. As for the characters in Return of the Native, their fates were something that they had no control over, and even though some of them benefited, and others didn’t, it was the only way which things could have happened for each and every one of them. It is evident that the plot would not have taken place the same without the presence of Fate, since the entire story is based on events which occurred because of this strange force. English Essays Wuthering Heights Essay Example For Students Wuthering Heights Essay Wuthering Heights was written by Emile BrontÃÆ' ©, one of the BrontÃÆ' © sisters . The author finished this novel in 1847 . After that, Emily died soon in 1848 with age thirty . In the nineteenth century Wuthering Heights becomes as classical novel. The readers who were read this novel were shocked by the Violence. In this paper, I will discuss the theme of the violence on Wuthering Heights. The novel takes place in England around 1760. the narrator, a gentleman named Lockwood. Lockwood rents a fine house and park called Thrush cross Grange in Yorkshire, and gradually learns more and more about the histories of two local families. This is what he learns from a housekeeper, Ellen Dean, who had been with one of the two families for all of her life. The story takes place in two main settings; Wuthering Heights and Thrush cross Grange, both situated on the harsh and desolate moors of Yorkshire. Emily Bronte actually grew up and lived in this place, and so her depiction of it is very accurate, and she uses her knowledge to emphasise the moods and attitudes of the characters. We will write a custom essay on Wuthering Heights specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The people of these two houses differ from each other. The people from the Wuthering heights such as Heath cliff are generally angry, ill tempered, vengeful, and often immoral. These attitudes are clearly reflected through the large, cold and dark house, situated on top of a ruthless hill on the moors. Thrush cross Grange is a more cultivated, calm house, situated in a valley of the moors. Its inhabitants, including Edgar Linton, are generally more refined, with more morals and calmer attitudes than those of Wuthering Heights. Catherine Earnshaw, who is from Wuthering heights, is a character that creates the conflict throughout the whole book and between the two characters, Edgar and Heath cliff. To clarify more that Catherine is torn between her love for Heathcliff and her desire to be a gentlewoman, and her decision to marry the gentle Edgar Linton drags almost all of the novels characters into conflict with Heathcliff To begin with, one of the main characters in Wuthering Heights is the devilish Heath cliff. An orphan despised since his birth. Heath cliff grows up to become a sadistic, cruel, vengeful and immoral man . He is often referred to as like the devil or as evil, and this is certainly the way he acts. His intense yet destroyed passion towards Catherine Earns haw causes him to despise all members of the Linton family of Thrush cross Grange, and he determined to destroy them in numerous. His character develops from chapter to another chapter he becomes a horrible person, especially when he abuses Isabella Edgar Lintons sister. He used her infatuation as a tool of revenge towards the Lintons, he constantly and savagely attacks Linton, his own dying son, and even his tenant, Mr Lockwood cannot escape his cruelty. Heathcliffs love for Catherine is tinged with danger and violence; Edgar loves Catherine with gracious tranquillity, and Catherine returns affection to each of them accordingly. The Grange is a symbol of civilization, warmth, and goodness; the Heights are a symbol of wildness, cruelty, and evil. Such utter difference between the environments and climates of the two households symbolizes the distinction between the temperaments of their inhabitants. This contrast results in the pain, anguish, and discontent suffered by the protagonists; yet ultimately, the violent passion that is like the howling winds of Wuthering Heights and the tender love that reminds one the sweet air at Thrush cross Grange come together, through the marriage of Catherine and Heathcliffs respective offspring, never to separate again. .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .postImageUrl , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:hover , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:visited , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:active { border:0!important; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:active , .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8 .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5e07e74c7d6bfca78d10306178ebe4e8:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: What Factors Distinguish criminological positivism from classicism EssayThrough extensive descriptions of the characters dwellings and its surroundings, Bronte helps the reader gain insight into these characters. The reader who scrutinizes this novel , will face many various violence between the characters . For example in chapter 4 Heathcliff and Hindly are very violent towards each other. and Heathcliff knows he can use it to his advantage. He doesnt even need to fight back, because father will always take his side. This bad relation is more developed through story Heathcliff is jealous of Edgar Linton, who is so pale and delicate and well mannered. He hates that Catherine likes him, and when Linton makes a comment about Heathcliffs hair, Heathcliff throws hot applesauce in his face. Heathcliffs violence is answered with more violence. Hindley took him upstairs and beat him; Hindley has become violent especially when he sticks a knife into Nellys mouth angry that she had not yet killed his son, as hed asked. Then his mood changes and he wants to hug his son. Even affection is violent with him, and the boy pulls away from his fathers brutal. On the other hand , Heathcliff is tormented with the loss of Catherine , he hits his head against a tree , causing it to haemorrhage . Nelly sees many bloodstains on the tree , and guesses that Heathcliff had inflicted this pain on himself many times during the night . This violence has not only instilled in the main characters behaviour in this novel but also it has a great infliction of the other characters. For example Isabella is beginning to enjoy seeing others suffer. After the incident between Hindley and Heathcliff, Isabella is happy to see Heathcliff looking upset, and she taunts him about Catherine until he cries. Her cruel words lead to a cruel act, just as she previously fearedHeathcliff impeaches her with a knife. The bigger surprise is that Isabella, wild and changed, throws it back at him, hoping to wound him. Linton became hysterical and had a terrible coughing fit after being forced from the living room. Cathy still blamed Hareton, and she hit him with her whip as she left. Also the flow and cadences of the conversation seem to reflect the mood. Every speech seems to flow into the other, and each time a speaker says something, it is usually long. Unless it is long then it is made up for in powerful actions, which tend to fill the gaps. The speech rhythm in between the actions keeps the situation passionate and emotional throughout. The use of exclamatory and interrogative marks inspires to the reader that the action and movement are fast and the voice is loud which made it dramatic.

When I visited my local dental surgery Essays

When I visited my local dental surgery Essays When I visited my local dental surgery Essay When I visited my local dental surgery Essay CD-ROM Drive * 56K Modem * 3.5 Floppy Disk Drive * Keyboard , Mouse 3 years parts and labour return to manufacturer. Supplied with original Microsoft XP installation CD and all drivers for Windows 95/98/ME/2000 and XP Price: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 475 including VAT Laptop Supplier: thelaptopsite.com Reference LAP03-829021 Manufacturer Hewlett Packard Model Evo NX9005 Processor AMD Athlon 2000 Memory 256mb HDD 30gb FDD 1.44 FDD CDROM/DVD DVD/CDRW Operating System Windows XP Professional Display 14.1 tft Condition New Manufacturers Warranty Price: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 799 including VAT I have decided to recommend a desktop tower computer rather then a lap top because: Desktop comes with a larger screen size, it can be placed on the floor under the desk and out of sight; it is much cheaper then a similar spec laptop. The price of the desktop recommended will be approximately à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1200. DESIGN All forms will be designed in this style. This will ensure everything looks similar for the user. Item Text details Text Position Colour Background Main Heading Font:20:Italic:Bold Centered Blue Form colour Labels Font: 14: Bold Left aligned Black Form colour Buttons Font:12:Bold Centre Black grey Forms N/A N/A N/A Dark Cyan background Compulsory data Font:12: Left Black Light orange Optional data Font:12 Left Black Light green Diagram showing the major components of the inputs and outputs User FORMS Design: Query1. Purpose: View patients belonging to a specified surgeon. Input: Surgeon name Process: Query database to look all patients against name given. Output: shows gender, forename, surname, contact numbers for all patients found. Query 2. View patient details. Input: Patient forename and surname Process: Query database to look for all patients against forename and surname. Output: Show full record details about the patient Pressing new patient Button brings up this form Database design New patient record Field Name Type Length Required Indexed Validation Duplicates Record ID Auto Number Primary key Yes No No No Medical No text 20 chars Yes No No No Gender text 1 char Yes No M/F Yes Forename text 20chars Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Surname text 20 char Yes Yes Type Check (cap first letter) Yes House No text 10 char Yes No No Yes Address1 text 50 chars Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address2 text 20 char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address3 text 20 char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address 4 text 20 char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Post code text 9 char Yes No Type Check (ccnn ccnn) yes Day time No text 12 char Yes No Character check Yes Mobile No text 12 char Yes No Character Check Yes DOB Date 10 char Yes No Type Check Yes Last appointment Date 10 char Yes No Type Check Yes Expiry date date 10 Char Yes No Type Check Yes Reminder status Text 1 char Yes No Y/N Yes Payment status Text 10 chars Yes No Paid, Defer, Free Yes Amount due Currency Integer No Yes Type Check Yes Surgeons table Field Name Type Length Required Indexed Validation Duplicates Surgeon ID Auto Number Primary key Yes No N/A No Title Text 4 char Yes No Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss Yes Forename Text 20 Char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Surname Text 20 Char Yes Yes Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address1 Text 50 Char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address2 Text 20 Char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address3 Text 20 Char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Address4 Text 20 Char Yes No Type Check (cap first letter) Yes Post Code Text 9 Char Yes No Type Check (ccnn ccnn) Yes Home No Text 12 char Yes No Character Check Yes Mob No Text 12 char Yes No Character Check Yes Surgery Table Field Name Type Length Required Indexed Validation Duplicates Patient ID Number Long Integer Yes Yes field key No Surgeon ID Number Long Integer Yes Yes field key No Diagram showing how the tables are linked together by key fields. Appendix A Questions for the interview 1. When patients joins the clinic what information do you record.? 2. When patient makes an appointment what information do you take down? 3. When patient arrives for his treatment, how do you note who is waiting for which surgeon? 4. When a person needs a follow-up appointment what do you record? 5. What additional tasks do you perform for a follow-up appointment? 6. How do you record information about patient payments of treatment? 7. What difficulties do you experience when you become very busy? 8. What happens to patients that you cannot deal with? 9. How do you track patients for different surgeons? 10. How many people are there working at the surgery? 11. How do you know how much to charge for different treatments? 12. Do patients cancel appoints? 13. What happens when they do this? Appendix B Answers given at interview A.1 When a new patients comes to register with us, we know the number of new patients that each surgeon will take. If they can take on new patients, then, we ask them to fill in a form about their medical details otherwise we refer them to another dental surgery. We then check the form and ask them to sign their declaration. We ask for their medical card and record the number as well as their names and address details. We also ask for details about their family members and their details. A.2 We take down their first name and surname and record it in our appointment planner against the surgeons name and time of appointment. The planner allows us to make appointments every 15 mins. A3. Yes, when a patient arrives, they usually say the time of their appointment and their name. We write a tick against their name, which indicates they are wait in reception. A4. We do the same as we did before as if the patient is making a new appointment but we know their name and surgeons name so simply agree on suitable time? A5. When we agree on the appointment time and day, we fill in a appoint card with the date and time details and hand it to the patient. We also ask about them to see if they wish to pay today or pay for everything at the end of the treatment. Most patients prefer to pay as treatment is being carried out. Some do decide they will pay the total amount at the end. We also have patients that dont have to pay if they are on job seeker allowance or social security benefit. A6. We make a note on the treatment card, if they have paid or deferred payment or no charge. If they pay we write out a receipt for them. A7. I find it very frustrating when we have people making queries and we have to wait for the appointment planner to be freed up before we can deal with the patient. We sometimes spend time looking for patient sheets in the filing cabinet which one of us has not filed and may be lying on the desk. Sometimes we dont get the treatment sheet and have to ask the dental nurse to look for it the surgeons treatment room and the customer is kept waiting. A8. The dental surgeon refers the patient to the specialist clinic. This involves writing to the clinic and requesting an appointment. It can three to four weeks for the appointment to come. A9. We file each patient records in different filing cabinet and on the planner we write down the name of the surgeon so that his patients are under his named column. A10. There are the three surgeons, three medical nurse and two of us at reception. A11. We have a list of treatments and prices against them. The surgeon writes down what treatment he has carried out and calculates the total. A12/13. Yes, quite often, all we do is put a diagonal line across it and make a new appointment. If they cancel before 48 hours, we do not charge them, otherwise we charge them à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20. Appendix C Notes taken during observation Observing the surgeon: Receptionist takes the notes from the filing cabinet and passes it to the nurse. The surgeon checks his last notes. The nurse calls the patient in. The treatment is carried out and the surgeon writes, the treatment he carried out and indicates if follow-up appointment is needed, he makes a brief notes about what he needs to do next time. The patient leaves the treatment room and the nurse returns the patient file to the receptionist desk. The next patient is the called in. Observing the Dental Nurse: Dental nurses are only involved in fetching and returning the patients records to and from the surgeon and assisting the surgeon. They do not write anything on the patients notes. Observing the Receptionist: Confirmed what the receptionist said she did with customer handling process. All information given during the interview was correct. Also observed the time wasted when the clinic becomes busy and how frustrated they become having to share a single appointment planner. The times they take to write out the receipt and appointment card is quite effective, but it takes a lower priority to ensuring surgeons receives the patients records and are not waiting. This means keeping the customer waiting longer then is necessary. Customer are frequently kept waiting as they try to pay for treatment or make follow-up appointments. New people arriving are given higher priority.

U.S. Citizenship Test Questions

U.S. Citizenship Test Questions On Oct. 1, 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) replaced the set of questions formerly used as part of the citizenship test with the questions listed here. All applicants who filed for naturalization on or after October 1, 2008, are required to take the new test. In the citizenship test, the applicant for citizenship is asked up to 10 of the 100 questions. The interviewer reads the questions in English and the applicant must answer in English. In order to pass, at least 6 of the 10 questions must be answered correctly. New Test Questions and Answers Some questions have more than one correct answer. In those cases, all acceptable answers are shown. All answers are shown exactly as worded by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT A. Principles of American Democracy 1. What is the supreme law of the land? A: The Constitution 2. What does the Constitution do? A: sets up the governmentA: defines the governmentA: protects basic rights of Americans 3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? A: We the People 4. What is an amendment? A: a change (to the Constitution)A: an addition (to the Constitution) 5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? A: The Bill of Rights 6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?* A: speechA: religionA: assemblyA: pressA: petition the government 7. How many amendments does the Constitution have? A: twenty-seven (27) 8. What did the  Declaration of Independence  do? A: announced our independence (from Great Britain)A: declared our independence (from Great Britain)A: said that the United States is free (from Great Britain) 9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence? A: lifeA: libertyA: pursuit of happiness 10. What is freedom of religion? A: You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion. 11. What is the economic system in the United States?* A: capitalist economyA: market economy 12. What is the rule of law? A: Everyone must follow the law.A: Leaders must obey the law.A: Government must obey the law.A: No one is above the law. B. System of Government 13. Name one branch or part of the government.* A: CongressA: legislativeA: PresidentA: executiveA: the courtsA: judicial 14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful? A: checks and balancesA: separation of powers 15. Who is in charge of the executive branch? A: the President 16. Who makes federal laws? A: CongressA: Senate and House (of Representatives)A: (U.S. or national) legislature 17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?* A: the Senate and House (of Representatives) 18. How many U.S. Senators are there? A: one hundred (100) 19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years? A: six (6) 20. Who is one of your states U.S. Senators? A: Answers will vary. [For District of Columbia residents and residents of U.S. territories, the answer is that D.C. (or the territory where the applicant lives) has no U.S. Senators.] * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. 21. The House of Representatives has how many voting members? A: four hundred thirty-five (435) 22. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years? A: two (2) 23. Name your U.S. Representative. A: Answers will vary. [Residents of territories with nonvoting Delegates or resident Commissioners may provide the name of that Delegate or Commissioner. Also acceptable is any statement that the territory has no (voting) Representatives in Congress.] 24. Who does a U.S. Senator represent? A: all people of the state 25. Why do some states have more Representatives than other states? A: (because of) the states populationA: (because) they have more peopleA: (because) some states have more people 26. We elect a President for how many years? A: four (4) 27. In what month do we vote for President?* A: November 28. What is the name of the President of the United States now?* A: Donald J. TrumpA: Donald TrumpA: Trump 29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? A: Michael Richard PenceA: Mike PenceA: Pence 30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President? A: the Vice President 31. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President? A: the Speaker of the House 32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military? A: the President 33. Who signs bills to become laws? A: the President 34. Who vetoes bills? A: the President 35. What does the Presidents Cabinet do? A: advises the President 36. What are two Cabinet-level positions? A: Secretary of AgricultureA: Secretary of CommerceA: Secretary of DefenseA: Secretary of EducationA: Secretary of EnergyA: Secretary of Health and Human ServicesA: Secretary of Homeland SecurityA: Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentA: Secretary of InteriorA: Secretary of StateA: Secretary of TransportationA: Secretary of TreasuryA: Secretary of Veterans AffairsA: Secretary of LaborA: Attorney General 37. What does the judicial branch do? A: reviews lawsA: explains lawsA: resolves disputes (disagreements)A: decides if a law goes against the Constitution 38. What is the highest court in the United States? A: the Supreme Court 39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? A: nine (9) 40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States? A: John Roberts (John G. Roberts, Jr.) * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. 41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government? A: to print moneyA: to declare warA: to create an armyA: to make treaties 42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states? A: provide schooling and educationA: provide protection (police)A: provide safety (fire departments)A: give a drivers licenseA: approve zoning and land use 43. Who is the Governor of your state? A: Answers will vary. [Residents of the District of Columbia and U.S. territories without a Governor should say we dont have a Governor.] 44. What is the capital of your state?* A: Answers will vary. [District of Colu*mbia residents should answer that D.C. is not a state and does not have a capital. Residents of U.S. territories should name the capital of the territory.] 45. What are the two major political parties in the United States?* A: Democratic and Republican 46. What is the political party of the President now? A: Republican (Party) 47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now? A: Nancy Pelosi (Pelosi) C: Rights and Responsibilities 48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them. A: Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).A: You dont have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.A: Any citizen can vote. (Women and men can vote.)A: A male citizen of any race (can vote). 49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?* A: serve on a juryA: vote 50. What are two rights only for United States citizens? A: apply for a federal jobA: voteA: run for officeA: carry a U.S. passport 51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? A: freedom of expressionA: freedom of speechA: freedom of assemblyA: freedom to petition the governmentA: freedom of worshipA: the right to bear arms 52. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance? A: the United StatesA: the flag 53. What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen? A: give up loyalty to other countriesA: defend the Constitution and laws of the United StatesA: obey the laws of the United StatesA: serve in the U.S. military (if needed)A: serve (do important work for) the nation (if needed)A: be loyal to the United States 54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?* A: eighteen (18) and older 55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy? A: voteA: join a political partyA: help with a campaignA: join a civic groupA: join a community groupA: give an elected official your opinion on an issueA: call Senators and RepresentativesA: publicly support or oppose an issue or policyA: run for officeA: write to a newspaper 56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?* A: April 15 57. When must all men register for the Selective Service? A: at age eighteen (18)A: between eighteen (18) and twenty-six (26) AMERICAN HISTORY A: Colonial Period and Independence 58. What is one reason colonists came to America? A: freedomA: political libertyA: religious freedomA: economic opportunityA: practice their religionA: escape persecution 59. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived? A: Native AmericansA: American Indians 60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves? A: AfricansA: people from Africa * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. 61. Why did the colonists fight the British? A: because of high taxes (taxation without representation)A: because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)A: because they didnt have self-government 62. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? A: (Thomas) Jefferson 63. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? A: July 4, 1776 64. There were 13 original states. Name three. A: New HampshireA: MassachusettsA: Rhode IslandA: ConnecticutA: New YorkA: New JerseyA: PennsylvaniaA: DelawareA: MarylandA: VirginiaA: North CarolinaA: South CarolinaA: Georgia 65. What happened at the Constitutional Convention? A: The Constitution was written.A: The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. 66. When was the Constitution written? A: 1787 67. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers. A: (James) MadisonA: (Alexander) HamiltonA: (John) JayA: Publius 68. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for? A: U.S. diplomatA: oldest member of the Constitutional ConventionA: first Postmaster General of the United StatesA: writer of Poor Richards AlmanacA: started the first free libraries 69. Who is the Father of Our Country? A: (George) Washington 70. Who was the first President?* A: (George) Washington B: 1800s 71. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803? A: the Louisiana TerritoryA: Louisiana 72. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s. A: War of 1812A: Mexican-American WarA: Civil WarA: Spanish-American War 73. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South. A: the Civil WarA: the War between the States 74. Name one problem that led to the Civil War. A: slaveryA: economic reasonsA: states rights 75. What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?* A: freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)A: saved (or preserved) the UnionA: led the United States during the Civil War 76. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do? A: freed the slavesA: freed slaves in the ConfederacyA: freed slaves in the Confederate statesA: freed slaves in most Southern states 77. What did Susan B. Anthony do? A: fought for womens rightsA: fought for civil rights C: Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information 78. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.* A: World War IA: World War IIA: Korean WarA: Vietnam WarA: (Persian) Gulf War 79. Who was President during World War I? A: (Woodrow) Wilson 80. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II? A: (Franklin) Roosevelt * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. 81. Who did the United States fight in World War II? A: Japan, Germany, and Italy 82. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in? A: World War II 83. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States? A: Communism 84. What movement tried to end racial discrimination? A: civil rights (movement) 85. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?* A: fought for civil rightsA: worked for equality for all Americans 86. What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States? A: Terrorists attacked the United States. 87. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States. [Adjudicators will be supplied with a complete list.] A: CherokeeA: NavajoA: SiouxA: ChippewaA: ChoctawA: PuebloA: ApacheA: IroquoisA: CreekA: BlackfeetA: SeminoleA: CheyenneA: ArawakA: ShawneeA: MoheganA: HuronA: OneidaA: LakotaA: CrowA: TetonA: HopiA: Inuit INTEGRATED CIVICS A: Geography 88. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States. A: Missouri (River)A: Mississippi (River) 89. What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States? A: Pacific (Ocean) 90. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States? A: Atlantic (Ocean) 91. Name one U.S. territory. A: Puerto RicoA: U.S. Virgin IslandsA: American SamoaA: Northern Mariana IslandsA: Guam 92. Name one state that borders Canada. A: MaineA: New HampshireA: VermontA: New YorkA: PennsylvaniaA: OhioA: MichiganA: MinnesotaA: North DakotaA: MontanaA: IdahoA: WashingtonA: Alaska 93. Name one state that borders Mexico. A: CaliforniaA: ArizonaA: New MexicoA: Texas 94. What is the capital of the United States?* A: Washington, D.C. 95. Where is the Statue of Liberty?* A: New York (Harbor)A: Liberty Island[Also acceptable are New Jersey, near New York City, and on the Hudson (River).] B. Symbols 96. Why does the flag have 13 stripes? A: because there were 13 original coloniesA: because the stripes represent the original colonies 97. Why does the flag have 50 stars?* A: because there is one star for each stateA: because each star represents a stateA: because there are 50 states 98. What is the name of the national anthem? A: The Star-Spangled Banner C: Holidays 99. When do we celebrate Independence Day?* A: July 4 100. Name two national U.S. holidays. A: New Years DayA: Martin Luther King, Jr., DayA: Presidents DayA: Memorial DayA: Independence DayA: Labor DayA: Columbus DayA: Veterans DayA: ThanksgivingA: Christmas NOTE: The questions above will be asked of applicants who file for naturalization on or after October 1, 2008. Until then, the Current Set of Citizenship Questions and Answers remains in effect. For those applicants who file prior to October 1, 2008, but are not interviewed until after October 2008 (but before October 1, 2009), there will be an option of taking the new test or the current one.

Sarah Palin and MSNBC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sarah Palin and MSNBC - Essay Example About Sarah Palin Sarah Palin is a famous politician, author and commentator in America. She was born on 11 February, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Palin has two sisters and a brother. Shortly after Palin’s birth, the whole family shifted from Idaho to Alaska. Her father was a science teacher and her mother was a school secretary. Thus, affiliation with education was inherent in the familial culture in which Palin was brought up. Palin went to the Wasilla High School. In addition to being an exceptional academic student, Palin served in the girls’ cross country running teams and was also the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ head in the school. She earned the title Sarah Barracuda as a result of her exemplary performance in the basketball team as the point-guard and the co-captain. Her contribution led the team to winning the Alaska state championship in 1982. In 1992, Palin was selected in the Wasilla City Council. About four years later, in 1996, Palin was made the mayor of Wasilla. Palin made an attempt to become the lieutenant governor in 2003, but ended up becoming the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s chairman. This firm assumed the role of the protector of the gas and oil fields in the state. Palin is the first Republican woman to be deemed eligible for the vide-presidency and is also the first Alaskan that made use of a major party’s national ticket in 2008, when Palin was nominated for the post of vice-presidency from the Republican Party. Palin resigned from the governorship in July 2009 after which, she launched a campaign in favor of the Tea Party Movement. Since the start of 2010, Palin has been commenting upon the politics from the platform of the Fix News and has been hosting the Sarah Palin’s Alaska show on the television. The fact that the number of viewers of the first episode of her show exceeded five million was an addition to her already lengthy list of records. The Learning Channel had never seen this volume of audiences before this show. Sarah Palin’s Involvement with MSNBC MSNBC is a US-based cable news channel which is projected in several countries including US, Canada, South Africa, Middle East and Germany. The name MSNBC is a combination of Microsoft and NBC, which reflects the joint venture of Microsoft and the NBC unit of the General Electric. This joint venture took place with the establishment of MSNBC in 1996. Originally an insignia of the partnership between Microsoft and NBC, share of Microsoft kept reducing until NBC gained almost complete hold over the news channel. MSNBC has been addicted to Sarah Palin for a long time. Palin’s overrepresentation in the media can partly be attributed to the fact that about two years ago in the Republican presidential ticket, the Alaska governor displayed an electrifying emergence. Although Palin was neither a public official in those days nor was a candidate any more, yet the journalists noticed that any r eport that included her name got listed amongst the most-viewed reports. â€Å"Palin, feeding this co-dependency and indulging the news business's endless desire for conflict, tweeted provocative nuggets that would help us keep her in the public eye -- so much so that this former vice presidential candidate gets far more coverage than the actual vice president† (Milbank, 2011). With the departure of Keith Olbermann, it is expected that MSNBC’

My Ethical System and Its Justification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

My Ethical System and Its Justification - Essay Example Faith is good because it serves as an unseen yet strong force that compels me to reject evil and choose good. Prudence is good, because it helps me become wiser. Justice is good, because it brings harmony to society as it ensures fairness. When everything is fair, resentment and retaliation could hardly win, which results to peace and order, thus making people’s lives happy and contented. Compassion is good because it awakens our responsibility to care for others. An act that could also help others becomes better persons. The more this world has better persons, the better place this world will be. Humility is good because it frees me from guilt and makes me feel good. Self-control is good because it restrains me from my ill desires while realigns me to what I ought to be. Fortitude is good because it gives me the strength to stand for what is right, whatever the consequence. And hope is good because it keeps me does what is good even in darkest hours. ... My philosophy resembles that of Aristotle’s Nichomachean ethics, which belief is that man ought to live a virtuous life to achieve genuine happiness (Pakaluk 49). We similarly share this belief added to the fact that we both believe in the four cardinal virtues that define what is good. However, unlike Aristotle’s, I believe that added to the four cardinal virtues, which speaks for intellectual virtue, emotional virtue, volitional virtue, and social virtue, there is a need for spiritual virtue like faith – the strongest weapon man can hold onto. II. Justifying my ethical system My ethical system is grounded on my belief that man’s being – as being the master creation and the highest form of creation – must live a virtuous life. This is what differentiates man from animals; this is the way by which man can achieve the task to which his/her being rests – the steward of creation. In man lies the progress and doom of the world; in man lies the future of humanity. The world can only be a happy place to live in if man truly lives a virtuous life, because by living a virtuous life, as defined above, man is not only able to better his/her self, but is also giving others the opportunity to see the difference between good and evil. Thus they can have an enlightened choice. Moreover, it is only in living a virtuous life that man can bring harmony to society and to humanity, thereby achieving genuine happiness in life. It is no secret that what make life in this world miserable and what makes this world chaotic are man’s evil ways, as most are blinded with power, fame, material gratification and selfishness. Man’s evil ways is also dehumanizing – something that is against man’s

Great Critical Thinkers Essay Example for Free

Great Critical Thinkers Essay Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804 Kant was the last influential philosopher of the modern Europe. He became famous for his theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment. Kan’ts thought was very influential in Germany during his life, moving philosophy beyond debate between nationalists and empiricists. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869 1948 Ghandi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of india during the the Indian independence battle with Britain. He pioneered Satyagraha , resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence! This concept helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation!. Was cruelly assassinated during his daily meditation. Sigmund Freud 1856 1939 Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression,and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopotology.He was early neurological researcher into cerebral function. Freud’s work remains influential in clinical approaches, and in the humanities and social sciences. He is considered one of the most outstanding thinkers of the first half of 20th century, in terms of originality and intellectual influence.Steve wozniak with Steve jobs and Ronald Wayne.Their inventions and machines are credited with contributing significantly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970’s. Edwin Hubble changed the way we see our universe! By demonstrating the existence of galaxies other than our own, the milky way. He is also famous for his Hubble LAW, and helped establish that the universe is expanding.

Uniforms In School :: essays research papers

Uniforms In School Uniforms should definitely be used in school systems. Everything about it makes sense. Not everyone is going to be happy about it at first, but they will slowly but surely adjust. Uniforms free students of the stress on what to wear in the morning. I usually have that problem, as well as my brother. Uniforms also relieve the tension, or "break the ice", when new students come in, since they will be wearing the same thing. This will benefit both the new student and the class as a whole. The uniforms will build a sense of unity within the school. Instead of everyone as a separate "team", everyone will be in the same "team". This will benefit the whole school. Uniforms free students of the stress on what to wear in the morning. Many students, including myself, stand in front of their closets and just stare, trying to decide on what kind of shirt to wear as well as what kind of pants or shorts. The uniforms will speed up the morning "getting-up" process, thus reducing tardiness in school that I know is a problem in my first period class. The enforcement of uniforms will relieve the tension between the new students and the students that are already there. The uniforms will expedite the process of making new friends for the new student since the uniforms will help the new student feel a sense of "belonging". This helps the majority of the school becoming friends with each other. This obviously helps the class and also the school as a whole, as there will be less fights and controversy between students. Uniforms will build a sense of unity within the school. The students will feel they are a part of one whole team charging toward their ultimate goal: graduation and college. The sense of unity will bring more fans and support for sports events and help the school financially.

The Olympus Scandal

The Olympus Scandal Hot Potatoes and Flying Funds Summary This paper describes the case of Olympus, a Japanese manufacturer of optic equipment, at which in early 2012 a scandal was uncovered which was soon dubbed to be one of the largest loss-concealment schemes of Japan. In the 1990’s, Olympus incurred significant losses on financial investments made. These were subsequently hidden with the aid of investment companies by shifting the investments around. In the 2000’s, these losses were to be repaid by paying exorbitant merger and acquisition fees to these investment companies.After newly-appointed CEO Michael Woodford blew the whistle on these frauds, the company got into trouble. Our research into the events leading to this scandal, as well as an observation of the internal control environment led to some interesting insights regarding possible improvements Olympus might implement. However, we also note that a collusion of board members cannot be prevented by any leve l of internal control, and a renewal of the entire board might be appropriate in order to establish proper internal control within the Olympus Corporation. Table of ContentsTable of Contents2 Chapter 13 1. 1Description of the organization of Olympus3 Organization3 Strategic Analysis3 Management Structure4 1. 2The Olympus Scandal5 Background6 Tobashi Schemes6 Whistleblower7 Legal Actions9 1. 3Analysis of the events9 Chapter 211 2. 1Evaluation of and recommendations for the control environment11 Organizational Structure11 Board of Directors and Audit Committee12 Management Philosophy and Operating Style13 Assignment of Authority and Responsibility15 Human Resource Policy and Practices16 Integrity and Ethical Values17 Commitment and Compliance18 . 2Recommendations for control activities19 Chapter 320 3. 1Conclusion20 Literature Used21 Appendix23 Chapter 1 1. 1Description of the organization of Olympus The organization which we will be discussing in this paper is Olympus, which is a Jap anese company specialized in optical and digital products. Most people will know Olympus from the cameras they make, but they produce a lot more different type of products. This chapter will cover the background of Olympus and a strategic analysis of the company. Organization Olympus was established in 1919 in Tokyo, Japan.At first they specialized in microscopes and thermometers, but in 1936 they introduced their very first camera, the so-called Pen. It is this product for which they are well-known to the public. Nonetheless, it is not their primary product. Olympus is extremely specialized in microscopes and optics. Most of these are used in professional environments, like research centers and hospitals. This links also to another specialty product of Olympus, namely medical equipment. Olympus is an important manufacturer of endoscopic, ultrasound and disinfection equipment.These medical instruments are used worldwide (Olympus Corporation, 2012b). Olympus is even market leader in the endoscopy market, with a market share of almost 70%. Of the net sales of Olympus, 42% are from the medical systems segments. According to the annual report, Olympus operates worldwide, with about 46% of the 2011 fiscal sales from Japan. Other main areas are North America (21,5%), Asia (not including Japan) with 11,5% and Europe with 18,2% (Olympus Corporation, 2011a). Strategic Analysis It is clear that Olympus is a multi-business entity which follows a related diversification strategy.They operate in several markets, namely ‘medical’, ‘life science and industrial’, ‘imaging’ and ‘information and communication’. All these areas require a lot of research and development, but there sure are operational synergies between these markets. Logically, the lenses they use in cameras are also very useful for the medical equipment. In the Annual Report of 2011, Olympus states that the two businesses it wants to focus on most are the †˜endoscopes’ and ‘surgical and endotherapy devices’. Olympus is already market leader in the first category, creating unique, high-resolution equipment.For the second category Olympus is still broadening its market share. An important step in this process was the acquisition of Gyrus, plc in 2005. Later on we will see that the acquisition of this U. S. endoscope company has played a very important role in the fraudulent activities of Olympus. In 2011, Olympus had about 34,391 employees. This number had been decreasing for a while, since in 2009 they had 36,503 employees. But not only the number of employees has decreased in the last few years. Net sales declined in 2011 to ? 847,105 million (about $10,589 million).Operating income declined to ? 35,360 million, about $442 million (Olympus Corporation, 2011a). The development of the results of Olympus in the past few years are shown in these three graphs below: [pic] Figure 1: Olympus Financial Results (Source: Ol ympus Annual Report 2011) Management Structure In the Annual Report of 2011, it is stated that Olympus values an appropriate corporate governance structure from a global perspective. They adopted a corporate structure with an auditor system based in the Japanese Corporation Law.The corporate governance systems consists of a Board of Directors of 15 members, which audits and supervises the performance of directors, and a Board of Auditors consisting of 4 members, which are independent from the Board of Directors and audit the performance of the directors. Two external auditors are members of the Board of Auditors, and also of the Special Committee, which gives advice to the Board of Directors. An interesting fact about the composition of the Board of Directors is that is has always fully consisted of Japanese directors, until April 2011, when the first non-Japanese director was appointed.Because there are a few important and recurring people in this scandal, it is important to know t heir names and position in the company. Tsuyoshi Kikukawa – Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Michael Woodford – President of the Board of Directors and COO Hisashi Mori – Director, Executive Vice President Hideo Yamada – Standing Corporate Auditor This is how the positions of the main actors were halfway April 2011, right before the suspicions of the fraud would rise (Olympus Corporation, 2011a). The management structure of Olympus can be visualized as follows: [pic]Figure 2: Olympus Management Structure (Source: Olympus Annual Report 2011) In the Corporate Governance Structure Chart above, some aspects of the Internal Control System can be found. We will discuss this explicitly in Chapter 4. But for now it is enough to know that Olympus has a CSR Commission chaired by the president to set up and evaluate targets with regard to CSR activities. They also have an internal employee code of behavior the so-called Olympus International Standards, and they established a Compliance Department which in case of compliance problems has to report the problems to the Board of Directors and the Board of Auditors.For the Risk management system, the company has established a Risk Management Committee which helps to decide on risk management policies and the evaluation, verification and procedural standards to respond to such risks. In order to reduce the risk of takeovers, they have introduced a plan to prevent large-scale purchases of the company’s shares. The anti-takeover measures are advised on and evaluated by the Special Committee, existing of the two outside auditors and one outside director (Olympus Corporation, 2011a). 1. 2The Olympus ScandalThe scandal surrounding Olympus became known on October 14th, 2011, when Micheal Woodford was fired as the CEO of Olympus. He had been the CEO of Olympus for only two weeks. He was the first non-Japanese person to become a member of the Board. In a press statement, Olympus announced t hat they had fired Woodford because of differences in management style. But according to Woodford, that was not the actual reason. He stated that Olympus had fired him because he questioned some prior acquisitions. This was not something of the most recent years, in fact, the scandal even goes back to the nineties. BackgroundIt all started in the beginning of the nineties. A decade earlier, the dollar was almost worth ? 250 (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2012). Due to this undervalued yen Olympus suffered from an enormous operating loss, as imported resources were incredibly expensive. To solve the problem of the extremely undervalued yen, a few countries decided devaluate, and after the implementation of the Plaza Accord in 1987, a dollar was worth about ? 121. The Japanese export market was still expanding, though one can wonder whether it even was a real market, it was actually more a bubble.In the final four years of the 1980’s the stock prices tripled . Many Japanese companies, like Olympus, used speculative investments to boost their income, which was very welcome because of the declining income from normal business due to declining exports. These risky investments worked until 1990, when the Japanese markets collapsed. In that year, Olympus decided to cover the loss of ? 100 billion ($730 million). The reason why such an enormous loss could be hidden was because of the accounting rules in Japan around that time. Investments could be carried at costs.Olympus simply did not write down on the investment, which was worth nothing anymore. They hoped that they could make up for the losses by doing more risky investments. But after a few years, instead of making up for it, the losses only got worse. And then in 1997, the accounting rules changed. Investments had to be marked to market and Olympus now actively had to do something to solve the problem of the losses. And it is this very moment when the real fraudulent practices of Olympu s started, to cover the losses of the last decade of the twentieth century.Tobashi Schemes It was much more difficult now to hide the losses for the public. Hideo Yamada, in that time a former full-time auditing officer at Olympus, was the chief of Olympus’ general affairs and financial department. He consulted, together with his subordinate Hisashi Mori, two officials of an consultancy firm. Together they decided to hide the losses with a Tobashi scheme. They transferred Olympus’ losses to some funds they had established right before March 1998 at the Cayman Islands, named Quick Progress and Central Forest.These companies were not consolidated with the Olympus’ financial statements, so such assets transferred there would not show up on Olympus’ balance sheets. By moving the assets for only short amounts of time, right before the financial year ended, they managed to keep these assets hidden for several years, including the losses they were incurring on t hem. Additionally, rumors are that Olympus reported several non-existing foreign bank accounts in order to conceal it’s usage of fake transactions. Additionally, several of these loss-incurring investments were moved to Axes America and it’s Cayman Islands-based subsidiary AXAM Invest Ltd.Signs of the fraud came to light when Olympus wanted to pay back these losses to AXAM by hiring them as consultants for the takeover of Gyrus. For this takeover, AXAM was paid an exorbitant fee totaling $687 million. This consisted $67 million in cash and another $177 million in preferred shares, which Olympus repurchased two months later for $620 million. This repurchase of shares also increased the goodwill on Olympus’ balance sheet by $435 million (Woodford, 2011). Gyrus was not the only dubious acquisition of Olympus.Throughout the years they had acquired many companies, most of the time for a very high price or by paying exorbitant fees to consultants. Another example is t he acquisition of Altis, Humalabo and News Chef. Between May 2006 and April 2008 Olympus acquired the majority controlling interest in these three companies. They paid approximately $773 million for the companies (? 73,419 million). The purchases were completed in April 2008. In the same fiscal year, ending in March 2009, the investment in these three companies was written down as follows: [pic]Figure 3: Altis, Humalabo and News Chef impairments (source: Letter from Woodford to Olympus Board, 2011) So the total investment in Altis, Humalabo and News Chef was almost $800 million, but within a year is was written down with almost $600 million to only 25% of the original value. This is of course an extraordinary goodwill impairment for such a short amount of time (Woodford, 2011). Whistleblower In April 2011, Michael Woodford became the first ever non-Japanese president and Chief Operating Officer (COO). October 1st 2011 he also became CEO of Olympus, replacing Kikukawa in that positio n.But within two weeks, October 14th, he was fired as CEO of the company. The Japanese Board stated that is was because of the differences in management style, that Woodford as an Englishman could not really understand the Japanese business culture. Woodford himself stated that the story told by the board was not true. According to him he was fired because of the fact that he investigated the M&A fees of several acquisitions, especially the acquisition of Gyrus (Voigt, K. , January 2012). Woodford started questioning some of the M&A fees paid after he read an article in FACTA on July 30th about a dubious acquisition by Olympus, namelyGyrus. Upon this he contacted Kikukawa and Mori and demanded answers about the fees paid. He wrote several letters, explaining his concerns about the governance issues, but he never got any real answers. He threatened to resign if he did not get an explanation about the M&A fees. Little later, he was named the new CEO of the company. Understanding quick ly that this promotion was only done to silence him, he hired PwC to investigate the fees without informing the board about this investigation. After the report of PwC was completed, Woodford sent the report to the Olympus Board and to Ernst&Young, auditors of Olympus.On an emergency board meeting on October 14th he was dismissed (Bacani, 2011). The directors of Olympus denied the accusations of Woodford for a few weeks, even blaming him for the decline of the stock price. On October 26 Kikukawa resigns as CEO and president, and he is replaced by Shuichi Takayama. In the week of 6 November 2011 president Takayama made public that he had been informed by the now-dismissed Mori about the cover-up schemes. He explained that he had known absolutely nothing about these schemes and that Kikukawa, Mori and Yamada were not responsible for the initial losses, but had only tried to hide the losses.Yamada, the auditor of Olympus, had resigned a week earlier. One week after Woodfords firing, on October 21st, the stock price of Olympus had fallen from $32 to $16. The chart below makes clear that the stock price would drop much further. In the week of 6 November, when Olympus admitted the fraud, the stock price declines to $6. 3 per share. The scandal caused the stock price to drop with almost 80% (Yahoo Finance, 2012). [pic] Figure 4: Olympus Stock Price (Source: Yahoo Finance) Legal Actions Of course, these types of fraud with such an impact cannot go unpunished.In February 2012, seven men were arrested for the fraud, including Kikukawa, Mori and Yamada (CNN Voigt, February 2012). They were arrested on suspicion of filing false financial statements to cover up the enormous losses from the past in 2006 and 2007. Kikukawa is seen as the main suspect in this case. Separately from these accusations, the company Olympus as an entity is also charged for the falsification of the financial statements. Later on, four of the seven men were rearrested for falsification in other year s, namely 2009, 2010 and 2011 (Hasegawa, 2012).Japanese lawyers have said that the executives can face up to ten years in prison or a fine of about $125,000. If found guilty, the firm faces a fine of almost $9 million. The trial of the Olympus officers has not started yet, so it cannot be said what the final judgment will be (Reuters, 2012). On April 20th 2012, investors approved of a complete new Board of Directors, hoping that the company now can start with rebuilding its image and shareholders’ trust, and that they can finally leave these rumorous years behind (Olympus Corporation, 2012). 1. 3Analysis of the eventsAlready in 1986, the then-CEO said to press that â€Å"in difficult times, companies will have to use financial engineering in order to make a profit†, referring to the use of Tobashi-schemes to hide incurred losses or even inflate profits. In the Japanese investment climate at the time, there was little regulation on this â€Å"flying away† of loss es incurred on bad investments, and it was in fact even popular in the ‘80’s, with certain production companies come to be nicknamed banks because their financial incomes exceeded their operational incomes (Dymski & Isenberg, 2002).This was made possible by the so-called zaitech (literally: financial engineering) system which was caused by the extremely low interest rates and high accessibility of credit, which made it easy for companies to raise money to invest in speculative market activities. This led to an upward spiral of increasing stock prices, enabling companies to obtain more capital, perform more risky investments, which again led to a increase in stock value enabling the companies to report more (speculative) profits, which closes the circle by increasing the company value and enabling them to obtain more capital (Haramis, 2007).Another factor contributing in this was that a lot of these securities issued were convertible bonds. Japanese investors customarily did not take into account the possible dilution of shares caused by convertible bonds, and thus the emission of convertible bonds did not cause a decline in the price of shares (Smith, 1994). Even if the zaitech would lead to a loss, the system of Tobashi would make it possible for firms to hide the losses. With Tobashi, the investment houses could reimburse the losses to their clients in loan-like constructions which would eventually need to be repaid.These loans often involved moving the loss-giving assets into special purpose vehicles (SPV’s). These SPV’s had non-synchronous financial year-ends, allowing the losses to be kept off the books by moving around the assets. The feeling of being unable to lose was also reinforced by investors. This is described as follows:â€Å"[†¦] the Banking Bureau instructed firms to postpone the introduction of lower cost accounting until April 1, 1988. Because of this, companies did not need to write down the loss and life-ins urance companies did not have to sell stocks in mass quantities.In this way, the MOF succeeded in preventing share prices from declining. After that, stock prices surged remarkably. This was because these measures by the MOF to contain the markets made investors believe that the ministry would never let stock prices slump. † (Kamikawa, February 2010) It was not until the end of 1989 that the Japanese government interceded in this bubble by raising the interest rates, which ultimately led to the collapse of the zaitech-bubble and eventually even the 1990’s recession in Japan (Smith, 1994). Olympus partook in this as well in the 1999’s by hiding the ? 0bn ($241mln) losses incurred while investing in a venture capital fund in 1999 owned by investment house Nomura. One of the owners of Nomura was Nobumasa Yokoo. This loss never showed up in the financial statements, but was uncovered during investigation by external audit firm PwC, which was hired by whistle-blowing director Woodford. ‘Coincidentally’, Yokoo was also shareholder in 3 companies (News Chef, Altis and Humbalabo) which Olympus acquired in the 2007 – 2010 period for ? 73. 4bn. Only 6 months later, these were impaired by ? 55. bn (75%) because â€Å"the business prospect diverged from the assumption at the time of investment†. Investigation into these investments is yet to be launched officially, but suspicions are that this is also another attempt at repayment for a Tobashi scheme. Chapter 2 2. 1Evaluation/recommendations for the control environment The control environment is an essential part and basis for the internal control system within a company. A firm may have enhanced control activities and monitoring procedures but without properly established control environment all the control component would be futile.In 1992 COSO released their Internal Control – Integrated Framework, which states that control environment â€Å"sets the tone of an org anization, influencing the control consciousness of its people† (COSO, 1992), provides foundation for other components of internal control. Control environment includes integrity and ethical values, commitment and competence of the company’s personnel, Board of Directors and Audit Committee participation, management philosophy and operating style, organizational structure and human resource policies, assignment of authority and responsibility by management.In 2004 COSO published Enterprise Risk Management – Integrated Framework, which expands on internal control and focuses more on enterprise risk management. Framework contains definition of internal environment, which â€Å"encompasses the tone of an organization, and sets the basis for how risk is viewed and addresses by an entity’s people† (COSO, 2004). We will address the elements of the control environment and internal environment to the Olympus case under investigation using the seven principl es for control environments as guidance (Streng, 2011).Alongside an evaluation addressing these elements, we will give our recommendations for improving them. Organizational Structure Evaluation The Olympus Corporate Strategic Plan slogan which is actively promoted within the company is â€Å"Advancing to the Next Stage of Globalization† (Olympus Corporation, 2010). Based on this slogan the company rejuvenated its management structure in April 2011 by introducing new management rules, restructuring information-related operations and administration, shifting focus to overseas operations and reviewing the cost structure.These changes can suggest the considerable flexibility of the organization in following the chosen strategy. The overall organization structure described in the part about â€Å"The Board of Directors and Audit Committee† seems quite elaborate for such kind of company as Olympus. Information about the key managers’ responsibility cannot be found in the public sources; therefore we cannot evaluate how adequate they are and whether managers have a proper understanding of them.Nevertheless, this organizational structure which seems to be thoroughly established did not prevent the fraud, because of the involvement of almost all top officials in it – 19 people were sued in covering-up losses and some of them are still the part of the firm’s management (Buerk, 2012) Recommendations The basics of internal controls are all there in Olympus, with collusion being the main reason why the fraud could continue for so long without any detection. The new management rules which were implemented in 2011 were a good start, were it not for that the board did not follow the newly implemented rules themselves.Best would be to completely remove any ties between the internal auditors and the board, so that the internal auditors can audit the board more effectively and without interference by executives. In a construction like this, th e internal audit department would only have their responsibility to the general meeting of shareholders, preventing possible future collusion. Board of Directors and Audit Committee Evaluation The corporate governance structure of Olympus consists of two organs.The first of these is the Board of directors, which meets frequently and is tasked with supervising and auditing the performance of executives and internal auditors. The second is the Board of auditors, tasked with the audit of the performance of the executives and advising the board of directors. The division between executive and non-executive directors is an important internal control procedure in enhancing the separation of duties for monitoring and decision-making, and should increase independence between the board and management.The general meeting of shareholders has the final decision on the appointing of directors, internal and external auditors and remuneration, ensuring a separation of duties. The remuneration of d irectors is based on their performance, which is measured by the balance score card (BSC) system on the degree to which the goals are achieved in four dimensions (financial, customer service, business operation process, growth potential). Concerning the knowledge and expertise of directors, we can conclude that, based on the publicly available information, the directors of the company are highly qualified and experienced.Also this conclusion can be confirmed by the resumes of the directors, who have all been involved with the company for a significant number of years, often a majority of their lifetime. This can however also be a weakness, because they may miss a fresh view on the company. The Olympus scandal showed existence of strong ties and cooperation between the Board of directors, banks, investment bankers and accounting firms in conducting fraud and their attempts to hide it (Yasu, 2012). Proper control environment should include directors who are independent from management , trade partners and other parties (Maitland, 2012).Recommendations In the case of Olympus the chairman of the board of directors was the same man as the CEO. We think this is a part of getting a huge scandal like this one. The Board of directors should determine whether or not the CEO is independent in character and in judgment (Financial Reporting Council, 2010). But in Olympus, the chairman of the board would therefore be required to evaluate himself on his own independence, character and judgment. Seeing as this is impossible the UK CG code proscribes a segregation of duties between these two positions.Even though this would not directly apply to Olympus operating under Japanese law, it is very probable that the Japanese CG code also sports at least an advice for this. Thus we would recommend for Olympus to have two different independent people fulfilling these functions. Furthermore we think that the people within the board and people with other top functions were too long hold ing the same position at the company. This makes the board less independent and will make the chance of fraudulent actions higher, even when some executive people left they came back at the company in another function like Kikukawa did.Kikukawa was first the CEO and president of the board, and returned as an auditing officer after his dismissal. This led him to be able to review his own work as CEO. We recommend that Olympus reassigns its board members and that people within this board should not have other important functions for at least several years. The UKCG Code advises for board members not to stay on for longer than 9 years (Financial Reporting Council, 2010). This makes it harder to perform fraudulent actions because people can't rely on the new people to participate in the fraud. This will also more often give shareholder control over the actions of the board.Additionally, they cannot get â€Å"rusted into habits†. However, as the entire board, including non-executi ves, and the internal auditors were involved in the fraud scheme, we have doubts whether any amount of internal control could have prevented this fraud. Management Philosophy and Operating Style Evaluation In this section we will pay attention to the management philosophy, including risk attitude and management approaches. The Olympus Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report 2011 gives us insight into which management insights considers the most important for the company.It is stated that for the company the main focus is not on the profit but on the â€Å"win-win relationships† with stakeholders based on mutual trust. Management philosophy in the company is based on â€Å"Social IN† through which company incorporate social values into the company’s activities. (Olympus Corporation, 2011b) The CSR Concept of the Olympus Group establishes the ways in which the company can make its contribution to society (through business and other voluntary activities) and s tates the company’s duties responsibilities to society through compliance with laws, regulations and business ethics.Olympus not only states their views on how the business should be conducted but also communicates them but means of policies. For example, to act on behalf of the customer the company established Protection Policy; with respect to human rights the Human Rights and Labor Policy was implemented. These policies and philosophies are incorporated in the daily business activities. All the means and processes mentioned above create an impression that the Olympus Company has a strong attitude towards corporate values and uses strictly stated procedures to bring them into everyday business life.Olympus established a system of committees to employ more comprehensive approach towards risks and to analyze, evaluate and manage them (see Figure 2: Olympus Risk Management System on the next page), such as a Risk Management Committee (to decide on the risk management policies and on proper responses for the risks faced by company, chaired by the president), a Risk Management Bureau (to collect and evaluate information regarding risks, to develop counter measures and ensure their effectiveness) and a Business Continuity Plan (to ensure devotion to its management policy in emergency cases, to be prepared to such cases).Recommendations However, despite all these internal controls, the fraud still managed to occur and persist through collusion of the board of directors. Not any amount of internal controls would be able to prevent such a fraud, as the board can always override these controls. This can especially be seen in Figure 6, where the president is depicted as the Risk Management Leader, all the while it was the president who was the center point of the fraud. However, one can limit the options for fraud by non-executive management significantly.The processes and policies established by Olympus already give a good head start, but key to success of them is support by management. Not in word, but also in deed. Every in-house department and affiliate company should establish its own risk management structure and all the uncovered significant risks should be immediately reported to the president and Risk Management Committee. [pic] Figure 6: Olympus Risk Management System (Source: Olympus CSR Report 2011) Assignment of Authority and Responsibility EvaluationThe company established a thorough corporate governance system with stringent monitoring, auditing, evaluating and reporting responsibilities. There are various committee structures ensuring compliance and effective internal controls in all the business activities and a lot of attention is paid to compliance with norms, laws and regulations. The Boards of directors plays an important role in establishing of company strategy, making decisions about main management issues and monitoring the fulfillment of decisions made and strategies established, while leaving the day-to-day manage ment to the company managers.A special Committee, consisting of outside directors and auditors, takes advisory responsibility concerning the most important deals. Public sources do not provide information about the employee job descriptions, therefore in it hard to evaluate thoroughly appropriateness of the responsibility assignment. The firm documents also do not contain the information regarding the number of people with respect to data processing and accounting functions, which also does not allow us to get a better grasp on the actual situation within the company. RecommendationsThe company already has developed a thorough corporate governance system with stringent responsibilities. There are still some recommendations like competency controls. This is a formal control since it verifies whether organizational activities are conducted in conformity with applicable procedures and requirements (Vaassen, Meuwissen, & Schelleman, 2009). So these controls can be used to prevent unauth orized employees gaining access to certain areas or assets they should not supposed to have access to. For these competency controls to work correctly strict procedures and requirements have to be well formulated and established.We therefore recommend Olympus to have strict procedures and have competence controls using these procedures. For responsibility we think it is important for Olympus to have clear function descriptions in which the responsibilities for that particular function are described. Human Resource Policy and Practices Evaluation The Olympus Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2011 states that human resource management systems are based on the belief that a company’s performance consists not only of its business results but also of the growth gained by each individual employee.The company established a thorough Human Rights and Labor policy stressing the most important issues in this area and developed a CSR Educational Cube (see right) to raise awareness o f compliance, CSR initiatives and enhance communication within the organization. The company introduced various initiatives concerning HRM including internal job-seeking, individual career planning, skill development, newly appointed executives trainings, occupational safety programs, physical and mental health consultations, and a so-called ‘Welfare Cafeteria Plan’.All of these activities serve the goals of enhancing employees performance and their commitment to the company. Concerning the reward systems, there are established procedures for annual paid holidays and bonuses. Company CSR Report states that salaries and bonuses reflect each individual’s activities and contributions; the bonus funds are linked to business results. Company also use a so-called Advanced Technician/Engineer Incentive System to ensure improvements of the technical and practical skills of engineers and serve the innovation basis for the company activities (Olympus Corporation, 2011b).Re commendations Vaassen et al, 2009, p. 203, Describes that Human resource management processes generally consists of recruiting and selecting employees, educating and training employees, assigning tasks to employees, evaluating employee performance, employee remuneration and employee termination. Some of these aspects can be found at Olympus but not all yet. An recommendation on this part is that for each employee there is a personnel file available.This file will consist of data of the employee right before starting at the company such as address, number and contract information, but it is also important to keep this file updated with the employee performance, evaluation, payroll and career advancements. Also when the employee participates in education and training programs this needs to be included. This file needs to be available to managers because managers can use this file to assign tasks to their employees. Another recommendation to Olympus is to evaluate their employees on a regular basis.This evaluation needs to provide feedback to the employee about their job effectiveness and career guidance, because this will motivate the employees. This evaluation needs to be done by the functional manager together with the human resources manager. Then finally it is important for Olympus to have procedures in place for terminating dysfunctional employees. When during the evaluations turns out that the employee is not performing as it should be, there needs to be a plan for improvement made by the superior of the employee and the human resource manager.This plan needs to be communicated to the employee. After this the two officers needs to monitor the employee to see if there is improvement. Integrity and Ethical Values Evaluation The Olympus scandal, and even more the scale of it, points out that ethical values are very important for companies. It is not enough to just have a code of conduct or an ethics committee. The company should also live to the ethical guide lines. And if even the directors do not behave ethically, how could they expect the employees to behave ethically? In theory Olympus has done a good job on the ethical part.They have got several codes on ethical behavior and moral values and there is a committee about this. But just the existence is not enough. It is clear that there was no correct ‘tone at the top’. It could be recommended to start at the top of the company, because once the directors show moral and ethical behavior and give guidance to what is right and wrong, the employees might act the same. Recommendations Part of the board of directors was replaced, but several key figures are still in place after the scandal, even though it is known that they were (or should have been) aware of the fraud going on right in front of them.We would therefore recommend that the remaining directors are also replaced, which would give a good signal to both shareholders and employees alike that it’s time for a fre sh start. It is also important that the attitude to mistakes or misbehavior is reasonable. Of course, the effects of a mistake may be huge, but the reaction to it must be reasonable. Otherwise, people will try to hide their mistakes. Especially in a business culture like the one in Japan, this may be very hard to implement, because it is considered discrediting the company if one makes mistakes or causes significant losses.As such there must be clear and reasonable consequences to misbehavior or overriding established controls in order to diminish the amount of secrecy around losses, mistakes or ethical misbehavior. Furthermore, the code of conduct and the ethical and moral values should be known and implemented. Not only the employees, but especially the directors should be aware of it and behave as demanded, to set an example and prevent scandals like this. Commitment and Compliance Evaluation Overall Olympus developed a thorough approach for recruitment and promotion.They establi shed company Human Rights and a Labor Policy and requires from all the employees high commitment to company values. To promote the company values, Olympus holds meetings with their employees and gives trainings to the employees. This can be seen in the Corporate Social Responsibility Report of 2011 which contains methods for developing a culture based on putting the customer first. To achieve this Olympus has chosen to instill the attitude of thinking from the perspective of the customer in every employee by providing special courses at all the levels in the company including newcomers.So Olympus facilitates skill development (Olympus college, Advanced Engineer Incentive System) to equip their employees with the skills they need to work successfully. At the company group level a Safety & Health and a Ethical Conduct Promotion Committee was established to enhance safety & health and to reduce ethical problems for all the employees within the group. Recommendation Olympus already does a lot to promote their company values as described above. Also by meetings with the employees the commitment will be better.For commitment it is also important to have good guidance by superiors, therefore our recommendations on this part are similar to the ones of human resource policies. Something that can be added in this part is that the education programs employees can perform are specially for those employees, so the programs needs to fit with the employee and their career changes. This will make the employee more committed to the company. 2. 2Recommendations for control activitiesIn this paragraph we will assume that all the recommendations for the control environment has been taken into account and that Olympus has implemented those recommendations. Now we will look at recommendations for the control activities. We first need to know what control activities are. According to Streng, 2011, p. 49: † Control activities are the formal policies and procedures that help an organization ensure that objectives are being achieved and are achievable. The scandal started with speculative investments which caused a loss of $730 million.Therefore Olympus should implement control activities to ensure that this cannot happen again. First of all the company should not invest in investments that are riskier (too speculative) than they prefer. They have to decide for themselves what their risk appetite is and cut out the investments that are too risky. To make sure that such investments will be left out, Olympus needs a risk assessment report for the investment. This report needs to be approved by the management which will make the investment, but also by the higher management of the company.This will make the chance of big losses smaller. Thereby comes the fact that segregation of duties is important. The scandal was caused because higher management approved or even initiated very risky investments, so there must be someone independent to check on the investment s. After having the investment approved the investment still needs to be monitored on a frequent basis. This is because there is still a chance of a loss or that the it actually was a wrong investment. Results of the monitoring activities also need to be communicated to the higher management so that they can intervene if necessary.The decision to intervene needs to be made by someone that is independent of the investment department, so that this decision will not be influenced. Than the auditor needs to check if there are risk assessment reports for the investments which Olympus decided to invest in and also that the higher management approved of these investments. Further the auditor needs to check if monitoring is done frequently and have to look at the decisions made by higher management on the basis of the monitoring activities.So for instance if these decisions are made by a independent person. We also like to advise Olympus to have strict procedures for when to abandon an inve stment, so that it will not be possible that after a loss incurred the investment stays in the portfolio in the hope that this investment will become profitable in the future and actually becomes more loss making. Furthermore it is important that Olympus only has employees in the investment department that are capable of making the right decisions and have the right knowledge of how to monitor and when to intervene.In order to do so, Olympus must have strict recruiting policies and offer education and training to their personnel. Only then they can be sure, to a certain level, that their investors are capable of investing, know what they are doing and what risk they can take. With the continuous stream of new, complex financial products it is very important that the employees of Olympus are highly educated and have up to date knowledge. Apart from the investment department, every employee of Olympus should be aware of the Code of Ethics, including the management.Finally, it is impor tant that there is an effectively working control IT system. A proper working system should be able to detect extraordinary high fees paid to e. g. consultants, extreme impairments on recently acquired companies and the transfer of money or losses to recently set up funds in dubious places (one has to admit that funds on the Cayman Islands should have raised some questions immediately). Once a proper IT control system is implemented it should be very hard for the directors to act as secretive as they did during the scandal. Chapter 3 3. 1ConclusionThe Olympus scandal became one of the largest loss-concealment schemes in Japan, routed back in the 1990’s. We conducted our research regarding this scandal starting from the company's history and organizational issues. Then we gave insight into the scandal itself, followed by the investigation and statements of recommendations for control environment and control activities. The control environment in the Olympus company was forming and developing throughout the years of the company's existence and various control activities were established. Nevertheless, it was not enough to prevent fraudulent actions.Therefore based on our research the following procedures can be recommended regarding the control environment: revision of the company’s organizational structure to guarantee auditor’s independence, reassignment of all board members involved in the scandal, implementation of procedures to ensure â€Å"real† compliance with corporate policies at all levels, enhancement of HRM policies and practices to ensure high qualification and commitment of personnel. Moreover, strict procedures, control activities and regular monitoring over investments should be developed within the company, to eliminate chances of such fraudulent situation in the future.A good ethics lesson can be learnt from the Olympus case. Collusion within the company's top officers could hardly be prevented by internal control me chanisms. Therefore the Olympus scandal is a very representative example for the regulators to direct their efforts. Also it is a great confirmation of the fact that integrity and high ethical values should be followed and embodied by all the employees of the company, from the workers and engineers to the president and chairman. Literature Used Bacani, C. (2011, October 24). The Olympus Scandal: When a Foreign CEO Rebels.Retrieved May 9, 2012, from CFOInnovationAsia: http://www. cfoinnovation. com Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2012, May 1). Japan / U. S. Foreign Exchange Rate. Retrieved May 9, 2012, from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: http://research. stlouisfed. org Buerk, R. (2012, February 16). Former Olympus Chairman Arrested in Accounting Probe. Retrieved May 9, 2012, from BBC News: http://www. bbc. co. uk COSO. (2004). Enterprise Risk Management – Integrated Framework. New York: AICPA. COSO. (1992). Internal Control – Integrated Framework . New York: AICPA. Dymski, G. , & Isenberg, D. 2002). 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Retrieved May 9, 2012, from Bloomberg: http://www. bloomberg. com Appendix Appendix IOlympus Timeline Appendix IIOlympus Corporate Governance Facts Main facts about the Boards of Directors (BD): †¢ 15 members (incl uding 3 outside directors) Meets once per month to make decisions about the business strategy and other current management issues and to control over the fulfillment of decisions made and strategies established †¢ Outside directors taking part in the BD meetings as members of the Special Committee[1] †¢ Executive Management Committee is formed at the company to facilitate President and COO decision making (meets 3 times per month) †¢ The term of office of directors has been set to 1 year to enhance their accountability (their performance is assessed annually) †¢ To enhance eligibility and expertise inside directors participate in seminars outside the company Main facts about the Board of Auditors: 4 auditors (including 2 outside auditors) †¢ meets 1 time per month †¢ audit management’s daily activities (for instance, director performance) †¢ participate in important company meetings (including BD meetings), they share their opinion concernin g the questions under the discussion with executive officers, subsidiary’s auditors, Internal Audit Department and accounting auditors †¢ The Board of Auditors shares its views with the President four times per year and with all other directors (excluding outside directors) and executive officers once a year. †¢ Outside auditors participate in the Board of Directors meetings as members of Special Committee.They give the company advices concerning the questions of large-scale acquisition of shares (over 20 %). Outside auditors have possibilities to visit the plants and research centers to deepen their knowledge about the company. ———————– [1] Japanese Corporate Law does not require companies with auditor have outside director within the Board of Directors. Olympus appointed Rikiya Fujita (doctor of medicine), Masanobu Chiba (career as a director of Nikkei Inc. and its group companies) and Junichi Hayashi (career as director of investment consulting company) ———————– Figure 5: Zaitech Bubble Figure 7: CSR Educational Cube (Source: Olympus CSR Report 2011)