Search results for: audit of accounts

Authors: Shuofen Hsu, Ya-Yi Chao, Chao-Wei Li

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This paper investigates the relationship between voluntary audit (hereafter, VA) of semi-annual consolidated financial statements decision and accounting conservatism. In general, there are four kinds of auditors' assurance services, which include audit, review, agreed-upon procedure and compliance engagements base on degree of assurance. The VA work by auditors may not only have the higher audit quality but an important signal of more reliable information than the review work. In Taiwan, The listed companies must prepare the semi-annual consolidated financial statements and with auditors' review before 2012, but some of the listed companies choose the assurance work from review to audit voluntarily. Due to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, the listed companies were required to prepare the second quarterly consolidated financial statements which should be reviewed by auditors since 2013. This rule will change some of the assurance work from audit to review by auditors, and the information asymmetry maybe increased. To control the selection bias, we use two-stage model to test the relationship between VA decision and accounting conservatism. Our empirical results indicate that the VA decision and accounting conservatism have a significant positive relationship in firms with family-controlled. That is, firms with family-controlled are more likely to do VA and to prepare more conservative consolidated financial statements to reduce the information asymmetry, meaning that there is a complementary effect between VA and accounting conservatism for firms with more information asymmetry. But on the contrary, we find that the VA decision and accounting conservatism have a significant negative relationship in firms with professional managers-controlled, meaning that there is a substitution effect between VA and accounting conservatism for firms with less information asymmetry. Finally, the accounting conservatism of consolidated financial statements decrease after the adoption of IFRSs (International Financial Reporting Standards) in Taiwan. It means that the disclosure and transparency of consolidated financial statements had be improved.

Keywords: voluntary audit, accounting conservatism, audit quality, information asymmetry

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Authors: Iyad Ismail, Fathilatul Abdul Hamid

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This research was mainly investigated to recognize the extent of big data analysis by external auditors. This paper adopts grounded theory as a framework for conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with eighteen external auditors. The research findings comprised the availability extent of big data and big data analysis usage by the external auditors in Palestine, Gaza Strip. Considering the study's outcomes leads to a series of auditing procedures in order to improve the external auditing techniques, which leads to high-quality audit process. Also, this research is crucial for auditing firms by giving an insight into the mechanisms of auditing firms to identify the most important strategies that help in achieving competitive audit quality. These results are aims to instruct the auditing academic and professional institutions in developing techniques for external auditors in order to the big data analysis. This paper provides appropriate information for the decision-making process and a source of future information which affects technological auditing.

Keywords: big data analysis, external auditors, audit reliance, internal audit function

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Authors: L. Sierra, N. Gambetta, M. A. Garcia-Benau, M. Orta

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Financial scandals and financial crisis have led to an international debate on the value of auditing. In recent years there have been significant legislative reforms aiming to increase markets’ confidence in audit services. In particular, there has been a significant debate on the need to improve the communication of auditors with audit reports users as a way to improve its informative value and thus, to improve audit quality. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has proposed changes to the audit report standards. The International Standard on Auditing 701, Communicating Key Audit Matters (KAM) in the Independent Auditor's Report, has introduced new concepts that go beyond the auditor's opinion and requires to disclose the risks that, from the auditor's point of view, are more significant in the audited company information. Focusing on the companies included in the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index, this study aims to focus on the analysis of the determinants of the number of KAM disclosed by the auditor in the audit report and moreover, the analysis of the determinants of the different type of KAM reported during the period 2013-2015. To test the hypotheses in the empirical research, two different models have been used. The first one is a linear regression model to identify the client’s characteristics, industry sector and auditor’s characteristics that are related to the number of KAM disclosed in the audit report. Secondly, a logistic regression model is used to identify the determinants of the number of each KAM type disclosed in the audit report; in line with the risk-based approach to auditing financial statements, we categorized the KAM in 2 groups: Entity-level KAM and Accounting-level KAM. Regarding the auditor’s characteristics impact on the KAM disclosure, the results show that PwC tends to report a larger number of KAM while KPMG tends to report less KAM in the audit report. Further, PwC reports a larger number of entity-level risk KAM while KPMG reports less account-level risk KAM. The results also show that companies paying higher fees tend to have more entity-level risk KAM and less account-level risk KAM. The materiality level is positively related to the number of account-level risk KAM. Additionally, these study results show that the relationship between client’s characteristics and number of KAM is more evident in account-level risk KAM than in entity-level risk KAM. A highly leveraged company carries a great deal of risk, but due to this, they are usually subject to strong capital providers monitoring resulting in less account-level risk KAM. The results reveal that the number of account-level risk KAM is strongly related to the industry sector in which the company operates assets. This study helps to understand the UK audit market, provides information to auditors and finally, it opens new research avenues in the academia.

Keywords: FTSE 100, IAS 701, key audit matters, auditor’s characteristics, client’s characteristics

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Authors: Redha Elhuni

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The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of Quality Management System (QMS) ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certification audit on company’s Performance. Libyan petroleum Institute has been certified ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for 8 years. Therefore, it is necessary to study and analyze the impact of that certification on its performance. Survey study has been done by distributing a questionnaire by handing it personally to qualified staff in the 15 accredited laboratories in the institute. The response rate was 66.6%. The statistical operations with the results of analytical study have been done to achieve the goal and objectives of the research. Finally, ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certification audit is found to have a positive effect on the institute’s performance.

Keywords: auditing process, ISO/IEC 17025:2005, quality management system, Libyan petroleum institute

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Authors: Zeynep Karaçor, Volkan Alptekin, Gökhan Akar, Tuba Akar

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This paper aims to review the phenomenon of triplet deficit which is called interaction of budget balance that make up the overall balance of the economy, investment savings balance and current accounts balance in terms of Turkey. In this paper, triplet deficit state in Turkish economy has been analyzed with vector autoregressive model and Granger causality test using data covering the period of 1980-2010. According to VAR results, increase in current accounts is perceived on public sector borrowing requirement. These two variables influence each other bilaterally. Therefore, current accounts increase public deficit, whereas public deficit increases current accounts. It is not possible to mention the existence of a short-term Granger causality between variables at issue.

Keywords: internal and external deficit, stability, triplet deficit, Turkey economy

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Authors: Nabil El Kadhi, Minerva M. Bunagan

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The dynamism in education, particularly in the area of teaching, learning and assessment has caused Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide to seek for ways to continuously improve their educational processes. HEIs use outcomes of institutional audits, assessments and accreditations, for improvement. In this study, the published institutional audit reports of HEIs in the Sultanate of Oman were analyzed to produce features of good practice; identify challenges along Teaching, Learning Assessment (TLA); and propose a framework that puts major emphasis in having a quality-assured TLA, including a set of principles that can be used as basis in succeeding an institutional visit. The TLA framework, which shows the TLA components, characteristics of the components, related expectation, including implementation tool/ strategy and pitfalls can be used by HEIs to have an adequate understanding of the scope of audit and be able to satisfy institutional audit requirements. The scope of this study can be widened by exploring the other requirements of the Institutional Audits in the Sultanate of Oman, particularly the area on Governance and Management and Student Support Services.

Keywords: accreditation, audit, teaching, learning and assessment, quality assurance

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Authors: Jan Stodt, Christoph Reich

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The usage of machine learning models for prediction is growing rapidly and proof that the intended requirements are met is essential. Audits are a proven method to determine whether requirements or guidelines are met. However, machine learning models have intrinsic characteristics, such as the quality of training data, that make it difficult to demonstrate the required behavior and make audits more challenging. This paper describes an ML audit framework that evaluates and reviews the risks of machine learning applications, the quality of the training data, and the machine learning model. We evaluate and demonstrate the functionality of the proposed framework by auditing an steel plate fault prediction model.

Keywords: audit, machine learning, assessment, metrics

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Authors: Mujeeb Saif Mohsen Al-Absy, Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail, Sitraselvi Chandren

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This study examines whether corporate governance (CG) mechanisms in firms that have a whistle-blowing policy (WHBLP) are more effective in constraining earnings management (EM), than those without. A sample of 288 Malaysian firms for the years 2013 to 2015, amounting to 864 firm-years were grouped into firms with and without WHBLP. Results show that for firms without WHBLP, the board chairman tenure would minimize EM activities. Meanwhile, for firms with WHBLP, board chairman independence, board chairman tenure, audit committee size, audit committee meeting and women in the audit committees are found to be associated with less EM activities. Further, it is found that ownership concentration and Big 4 auditing firms help to reduce EM activities in firms with WHBLP, while not in firms without WHBLP. Hence, functional and effective governance can be achieved by having a WHBLP, which is in line with agency and resource dependent theories. Therefore, this study suggests that firms should have a WHBLP in place, and policymakers should come up with enhanced criteria to strengthen the mechanisms of WHBLP.

Keywords: corporate governance, earnings management, whistle-blowing policy, audit committee, board of directors

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Authors: A. S. CohenMiller, Jenifer Lewis, Gwen McEvoy, Kristy Kelly

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This international, interdisciplinary study presents the first stage of a gender mainstreaming project within one university as a microcosm of society in Kazakhstan to make concrete policy recommendations and set up the potential for new research to monitor change over time. Local, regional, and UN representatives have noted the critical need and interest in gender related issues in Kazakhstan. Gender mainstreaming has been noted as a strategy to understand and address gender equality and equity such as within the academy in exploring and examining organizational/management issues, university decision-making and leadership, assessing the overall academic climate, discrimination issues, hiring and promotion, and student recruitment and retention. This presentation provides preliminary findings from the university gender audit, highlighting key elements for moving forward in gender mainstreaming. The full study analyzes findings from the full gender audit including interview with key stakeholders, time-use surveys, participant-observations and interviews with female students, staff and faculty, and reviews of formal organizational policies and practices.

Keywords: academia, equity, Eurasia, gender audit, gender mainstreaming, Kazakhstan, policy, time-use survey

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Authors: Leandi Steenkamp

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The sectional title industry has been a part of the property landscape in South Africa for almost half a century, and plays a significant role in addressing the housing problem in the country. Stakeholders such as owners and investors in sectional title property are in most cases not directly involved in the management thereof, and place reliance on the audited annual financial statements of bodies corporate for decision-making purposes. Although the industry seems to be highly regulated, the legislation regarding accounting and auditing of sectional title is vague and ambiguous. Furthermore, there are no industry-specific auditing and accounting standards to guide accounting and auditing practitioners in performing their work and industry financial benchmarks are not readily available. In addition, financial pressure on sectional title schemes is often very high due to the fact that some owners exercise unrealistic pressure to keep monthly levies as low as possible. All these factors have an impact on the business risk as well as audit risk of bodies corporate. Very little academic research has been undertaken on the sectional title industry in South Africa from an accounting and auditing perspective. The aim of this paper is threefold: Firstly, to discuss the findings of a literature review on uncertainties, ambiguity and confusing aspects in current legislation regarding the audit of a sectional title property that may cause or increase audit and business risk. Secondly, empirical findings of risk-related aspects from the results of interviews with three groups of body corporate role-players will be discussed. The role-players were body corporate trustee chairpersons, body corporate managing agents and accounting and auditing practitioners of bodies corporate. Specific reference will be made to business risk and audit risk. Thirdly, practical recommendations will be made on possibilities of closing the audit expectation gap, and further research opportunities in this regard will be discussed.

Keywords: assurance, audit, audit risk, body corporate, corporate governance, sectional title

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Authors: Tio Novita Efriani

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Public sector organizations work in a complex and risky environment. Since the beginning of 2000s, the public sector has paid attention to the need for an effective risk management. The Indonesian public sector has also concerned about this issue and in 2008 it enacted the Government Regulation that gives mandate for the implementation of risk management in government organizations. This paper investigates risk management implementation in the Indonesian public sector organizations and the role of transformational leadership and internal audit activities. Data was collected via survey. A total of 202 effective responses (30% response rate) from employees in 34 government ministries were statistically analyzed by using Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the software was SmartPLS 3.0. All the constructs were lower order, except for the risk management implementation construct, which was treated as a second-order construct. A two-stage approach was employed in the analysis of the higher order component. The findings revealed that transformational leadership positively influence risk management implementation. The findings also found that the core and legitimate roles of internal audit in risk management positively affect the implementation of risk management. The final finding showed that internal auditing mediates a relationship between transformational leadership and risk management implementation. These results suggest that the implementation of risk management in the Indonesian public sector was significantly supported by internal auditors and leadership. The findings confirm the importance of transformational leadership and internal audit in the public sector risk management strategies.

Keywords: Indonesian public sector, internal audit, risk management, transformational leadership

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Authors: Niddal Imam, Vassilios G. Vassilakis

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After analysing messages posted by health-related spam campaigns in Twitter Arabic hashtags, we found that these campaigns use unique hijacked accounts (we call them adversarial hijacked accounts) as adversarial examples to fool deployed ML-based spam detectors. Existing ML-based models build a behaviour profile for each user to detect hijacked accounts. This approach is not applicable for detecting spam in Twitter hashtags since they are computationally expensive. Hence, we propose an adversary-aware ML-based detector, which includes a newly designed feature (avg posts) to improve the detection of spam tweets posted by the adversarial hijacked accounts at a tweet-level in trending hashtags. The proposed detector was designed considering three key points: robustness, adaptability, and interpretability. The new feature leverages the account’s temporal patterns (i.e., account age and number of posts). It is faster to compute compared to features discussed in the literature and improves the accuracy of detecting the identified hijacked accounts by 73%.

Keywords: Twitter spam detection, adversarial examples, evasion attack, adversarial concept drift, account hijacking, trending hashtag

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Authors: Feddaoui Amina

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Through this study we will try to shed light on the theoretical framework proposed for understanding creative accounting as a financial numbers game and one of the most important techniques of accounts manipulation, its main actors and its practices. We will discover the role of the modified Jones model (1995) in detecting creative accounting practices using discretionary accruals. Finally we will try to confirm the importance and the need to address this type of practices using corporate governance as a main control system and an important defense line to reduce these dangerous accounts manipulation.

Keywords: financial numbers game, creative accounting, modified Jones model, accounts manipulation

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Authors: Maya Agarwala

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Objectives: Audit the quality of clinical photographs taken for Orthodontic patients at Queen’s hospital, Romford. Design and setting: All Orthodontic photographs are taken in the Medical Photography Department at Queen’s Hospital. Retrospective audit with data collected between January - March 2023. Gold standard: Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI) standard 12 photographs: 6 extraoral and 6 intraoral. 100% of patients to have the standard 12 photographs meeting a satisfactory diagnostic quality. Materials and methods: 30 patients randomly selected. All photographs analysed against the IMI gold standard. Results: A total of 360 photographs were analysed. 100% of the photographs had the 12 photographic views. Of which, 93.1% met the gold standard. Of the extraoral photos: 99.4% met the gold standard, 0.6% had incorrect head positioning. Of the intraoral photographs: 87.2% met the gold standard. The most common intraoral errors were: the presence of saliva pooling (7.2%), insufficient soft tissue retraction (3.3%), incomplete occlusal surface visibility (2.2%) and mirror fogging (1.1%). Conclusion: The gold standard was not met, however the overall standard of Orthodontic photographs is high. Further training of the Medical Photography team is needed to improve the quality of photographs. Following the training, the audit will be repeated. High-quality clinical photographs are an important part of clinical record keeping.

Keywords: orthodontics, paediatric, photography, audit

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Authors: Krisna Damayanti

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Negative issue about the relationship between auditors and clients often heard. It arises in view of the rise of a variety of phenomena resulting from the audit practice of greed and do not appreciate the independence of the audit profession and professional code of ethics. It is a logical consequence of the practice of capitalism in accounting. The purpose of this paper would like to uncover the existing auditing practices in Indonesia, especially Java, which is associated with a strong influence of Javanese culture with reluctant/"shy", politely, "legowo", "ngemong" friendly, "not mentholo", "tepo seliro", "ngajeni", "acquiescent". The method used by interpretive approach that emphasizes the role of language, interpret and understand and see social reality as something other than a label, name or concept. Auditing practices in each country has a culture that will affect the standard set by those regulatory standards although there has been an adaptation of IAS. In Indonesia the majority of parties dominated by Javanesse racial regulators, so Java culture is embedded in every audit practices thus conditions in Java requires auditors to behave like that, sometimes interfere with standard Java code of conduct that must be executed by an auditor. Auditors who live in Java have the characters of Javanese culture that is hard to avoid in the audit practice. However, in practice, the auditor still are relevant in their profession.

Keywords: auditors, java, character, profession, code of ethics, client

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Authors: Charles Amoo, Joshua New, Bill Eckman

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Buildings in the United States account for a significant proportion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and this trend is expected to continue as well as rise in the near future. Low-income households, in particular, bear a disproportionate burden of high building energy consumption and spending due to high energy costs. Energy efficiency improvements need to reach an average of 4% per year in this decade in order to meet global net zero emissions target by 2050, but less than 1 % of U.S. buildings are improved each year. The government has recognized the importance of technology in addressing this issue, and energy efficiency programs have been developed to tackle the problem. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the largest residential whole-house energy efficiency program in the U.S., is specifically designed to reduce energy costs for low-income households. Under the WAP, energy auditors must follow specific audit procedures and use Department of Energy (DOE) approved energy audit tools or software. This article proposes an expanded framework of factors that should be considered in energy audit software that is approved for use in energy efficiency programs, particularly for low-income households. The framework includes more than 50 factors organized under 14 assessment criteria and can be used to qualitatively and quantitatively score different energy audit software to determine their suitability for specific energy efficiency programs. While the tool can be useful for developers to build new tools and improve existing software, as well as for energy efficiency program administrators to approve or certify tools for use, there are limitations to the model, such as the lack of flexibility that allows continuous scoring to accommodate variability and subjectivity. These limitations can be addressed by using aggregate scores of each criterion as weights that could be combined with value function and direct rating scores in a multicriteria decision analysis for a more flexible scoring.

Keywords: buildings, energy efficiency, energy audit, software

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Authors: Mohamed Fadzlee Sulaiman, Zainurrasyid Abdullah, Mohd Zabri Adil Talib, Aswami Fadillah Mohd Ariffin

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In common digital forensics cases, investigation may rely on the analysis conducted on specific and relevant exhibits involved. Usually the investigation officer may define and advise digital forensic analyst about the goals and objectives to be achieved in reconstructing the trail of evidence while maintaining the specific scope of investigation. With the technology growth, people are starting to realize the importance of cyber security to their organization and this new perspective creates awareness that digital forensics auditing must come in place in order to measure possible threat or attack to their cyber-infrastructure. Instead of performing investigation on incident basis, auditing may broaden the scope of investigation to the level of anomaly detection in daily operation of organization’s cyber space. While handling a huge amount of data such as log files, performing digital forensics audit for large organization proven to be onerous task for the analyst either to analyze the huge files or to translate the findings in a way where the stakeholder can clearly understand. Data visualization can be emphasized in conducting digital forensic audit and investigation to resolve both needs. This study will identify the important factors that should be considered to perform data visualization techniques in order to detect anomaly that meet the digital forensic audit and investigation objectives.

Keywords: digital forensic, data visualization, anomaly detection , log analysis, forensic audit, visualization techniques

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Authors: Ahmed ElAzab, Amira M. Idrees, Mahmoud A. Mahmoud, Hesham Hefny

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Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook attracts over 500 million users across the world, for those users, their social life, even their practical life, has become interrelated. Their interaction with social networking has affected their life forever. Accordingly, social networking sites have become among the main channels that are responsible for vast dissemination of different kinds of information during real time events. This popularity in Social networking has led to different problems including the possibility of exposing incorrect information to their users through fake accounts which results to the spread of malicious content during life events. This situation can result to a huge damage in the real world to the society in general including citizens, business entities, and others. In this paper, we present a classification method for detecting fake accounts on Twitter. The study determines the minimized set of the main factors that influence the detection of the fake accounts on Twitter, then the determined factors have been applied using different classification techniques, a comparison of the results for these techniques has been performed and the most accurate algorithm is selected according to the accuracy of the results. The study has been compared with different recent research in the same area, this comparison has proved the accuracy of the proposed study. We claim that this study can be continuously applied on Twitter social network to automatically detect the fake accounts, moreover, the study can be applied on different Social network sites such as Facebook with minor changes according to the nature of the social network which are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: fake accounts detection, classification algorithms, twitter accounts analysis, features based techniques

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Authors: Diego Saldo Alves, Marcelo Paveck Ayub

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The quality of accounting information is very important for the decision-making of managers, investors government and other information users. The opinion of the independent audit has a significant influence on the decision-making, especially the investors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the reasons that companies listed on Brazilian Stock Exchange B3, if they received qualified opinion and disclaimer of opinion of the independent auditors. We analyzed the reports of the independent auditors of 23 Brazilian companies listed in B3 that received qualified opinion and disclaimer of opinion between the years 2012 and 2017. The findings show that the companies do not comply the International Financial Reporting Standard, IFRS, also they did not provide documentation to prove the operations performed, did not account expenses, problems in corporate governance and internal controls.

Keywords: audit, disclaimer of opinion, independent auditors, qualified opinion

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Authors: M. D. D. Chathurangi, M. G. K. Nayanathara, K. M. H. M. M. Gunapala, G. M. R. G. Dayananda, Kavinga Yapa Abeywardena, Deemantha Siriwardana

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Due to the growing popularity of social media platforms at present, there are various concerns, mostly cyberbullying, spam, bot accounts, and the spread of incorrect information. To develop a risk score calculation system as a thorough method for deciphering and exposing unethical social media profiles, this research explores the most suitable algorithms to our best knowledge in detecting the mentioned concerns. Various multiple models, such as Naïve Bayes, CNN, KNN, Stochastic Gradient Descent, Gradient Boosting Classifier, etc., were examined, and the best results were taken into the development of the risk score system. For cyberbullying, the Logistic Regression algorithm achieved an accuracy of 84.9%, while the spam-detecting MLP model gained 98.02% accuracy. The bot accounts identifying the Random Forest algorithm obtained 91.06% accuracy, and 84% accuracy was acquired for fake news detection using SVM.

Keywords: cyberbullying, spam behavior, bot accounts, fake news, machine learning

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Authors: Gabrielle O'Donoghue

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Background: Pre-operative radiographs facilitate assessment and treatment planning in minor oral surgery. Quality assurance for dental radiography advocates the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) principle in collecting accurate diagnostic information. Aims: To audit the quality of digital intraoral periapicals (IOPAs) taken prior to dental extractions in a metropolitan general dental practice setting. Standards: The National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) guidance outlines three grades of radiograph quality: excellent (Grade 1 > 70% of total exposures), diagnostically acceptable (Grade 2 <20%), and unacceptable (Grade 3 <10%). Methodology: A study of pre-operative radiographs taken prior to dental extractions across 12 private general dental practices in a large metropolitan area by 44 practitioners. A total of 725 extractions were assessed, allowing 258 IOPAs to be reviewed in one audit cycle. Results: First cycle: Of 258 IOPAs: 223(86.4%) scored Grade 1, 27(10.5%) Grade 2, and 8(3.1%) Grade 3. The standard was met. 35 dental extractions were performed without an available pre-operative radiograph. Action Plan & Recommendations: Results were distributed to all staff and a continuous professional development evening organized to outline recommendations to improve image quality. A second audit cycle is proposed at a six-month interval to review the recommendations and appraise results. Conclusion: The overall standard of radiographs met the published guidelines. A significant improvement in the number of procedures undertaken without pre-operative imaging is expected at a six-month interval period. An investigation into undiagnostic imaging and associated adverse patient outcomes is being considered. Maintenance of the standards achieved is predicted in the second audit cycle to ensure consistent high quality imaging.

Keywords: audit, oral radiology, oral surgery, periapical radiographs, quality assurance

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Authors: García López

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The Government Departments of Health have the task of informing and educating citizens about public health issues. For this, they use channels like Twitter, key in the search for health information and the propagation of content. The tweets, important in the virality of the content, may contain emotions that influence the contagion and exchange of knowledge. The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the emotional projection of health information shared on Twitter by official American accounts: the disease control account CDCgov, National Institutes of Health, NIH, the government agency HHSGov, and the professional organization PublicHealth. For this, we used Tone Analyzer, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) tool specialized in emotion detection in text, corresponding to the categorical model of emotion representation. For 15 days, all tweets from these accounts were analyzed with the emotional analysis tool in text. The results showed that their tweets contain an important emotional load, a determining factor in the success of their communications. This exposes that official accounts also use subjective language and contain emotions. The predominance of emotion joy over sadness and the strong presence of emotions in their tweets stimulate the virality of content, a key in the work of informing that government health departments have.

Keywords: emotions in tweets, emotion detection in the text, health information on Twitter, American health official accounts, emotions on Twitter, emotions and content

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Authors: Gerges Samaan Henin Abdalla

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Ultra-secured methods of banking services have been introduced to the customer, such as online banking. Banks have begun to consider electronic banking (e-banking) as a way to replace some traditional branch functions by using the Internet as a distribution channel. Some consumers have at least one account at multiple banks and access these accounts through online banking. To check their current net worth, clients need to log into each of their accounts, get detailed information, and work toward consolidation. Not only is it time consuming, but it is also a repeatable activity with a certain frequency. To solve this problem, the concept of account aggregation was added as a solution. Account consolidation in e-banking as a form of electronic banking appears to build a stronger relationship with customers. An account linking service is generally referred to as a service that allows customers to manage their bank accounts held at different institutions via a common online banking platform that places a high priority on security and data protection. Consumers have at least one account at multiple banks and access these accounts through online banking. To check their current net worth, clients need to log into each of their accounts, get detailed information, and work toward consolidation. The article provides an overview of the account aggregation approach in e-banking as a new service in the area of e-banking.

Keywords: compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, observation, risk banking technology, Internet banks, modernization of banks, banks, account aggregation, security, enterprise development

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Authors: Alon Cohen, Jeffrey Kantor, Shalom Levy

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Technology adoption models are extensively used in the literature to explore drivers and inhibitors affecting the adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Techniques and Tools (CAATTs). Further studies from recent years suggested additional factors that may affect technology adoption by CPA firms. However, the adoption of CAATTs by financial auditors differs from the adoption of technologies in other industries. This is a result of the unique characteristics of the auditing process, which are expressed in the audit risk elements and the risk-based auditing approach, as encoded in the auditing standards. Since these audit risk factors are not part of the existing models that are used to explain technology adoption, these models do not fully correspond to the specific needs and requirements of the auditing domain. The overarching objective of this qualitative research is to fill the gap in the literature, which exists as a result of using generic technology adoption models. Followed by a pretest and based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 Israeli CPA firms of different sizes, this study aims to reveal determinants related to audit risk factors that influence the adoption of CAATTs in audits and proposes a new modeling approach for the successful adoption of CAATTs. The findings emphasize several important aspects: (1) while large CPA firms developed their own inner guidelines to assess the audit risk components, other CPA firms do not follow a formal and validated methodology to evaluate these risks; (2) large firms incorporate a variety of CAATTs, including self-developed advanced tools. On the other hand, small and mid-sized CPA firms incorporate standard CAATTs and still need to catch up to better understand what CAATTs can offer and how they can contribute to the quality of the audit; (3) the top management of mid-sized and small CPA firms should be more proactive and updated about CAATTs capabilities and contributions to audits; and (4) All CPA firms consider professionalism as a major challenge that must be constantly managed to ensure an optimal CAATTs operation. The study extends the existing knowledge of CAATTs adoption by looking at it from a risk-based auditing approach. It suggests a new model for CAATTs adoption by incorporating influencing audit risk factors that auditors should examine when considering CAATTs adoption. Since the model can be used in various audited scenarios and supports strategic, risk-based decisions, it maximizes the great potential of CAATTs on the quality of the audits. The results and insights can be useful to CPA firms, internal auditors, CAATTs developers and regulators. Moreover, it may motivate audit standard-setters to issue updated guidelines regarding CAATTs adoption in audits.

Keywords: audit risk, CAATTs, financial auditing, information technology, technology adoption models

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Authors: Richa Sinha, Mohammad Irfan Javed, Sanjay Singh

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Introduction: Good antimicrobial prescribing reduces length of stay in hospital, risk of adverse events, antimicrobial resistance, and unnecessary hospital expenditure. The aim of this prospective audit was to identify any problems with antimicrobial prescribing including documentation of the relevant aspects as well as appropriateness of antibiotics use. The audit was conducted on the surgical wards in a teaching hospital in the UK. Methods: Standards included the indication, duration, choice, and prescription of antibiotic should be in line with current Regional Guidelines and should be clearly documented on the prescription chart. There should be an entry in each patients’ medical record of the diagnosis and indication for each acute antibiotic prescription issued. All prescriptions should clearly document the route, frequency and dose of antibiotic. Data collection was done for 2 weeks in the month of March 2014. A proforma including all the questions above was completed for all the patients. The results were analysed using Excel. Results: 35 patients in total were selected for the audit. 85.7% of patients had indication of antibiotic documented on the prescription chart and 68.5% of patients had indication documented in the notes. The antibiotic used was in line with hospital guidelines in 45.7% of patients, however, in a further 28.5% of patients the reason for the antibiotic prescription was microbiology approved. Therefore, in total 74.2% of patients had been prescribed appropriate antibiotics. The duration of antibiotic was documented in 68.6% of patients and the antibiotic was reviewed in 37.1% of patients. The dose, frequency and route was documented clearly in 100% of patients. Conclusion: Overall, prescribing can be improved on the surgical wards in this hospital. Only 37.1% of patients had clear documentation of a review of antibiotics. It may be that antibiotics have been reviewed but this should be clearly highlighted on the prescription chart or the notes. Failure to review antibiotics can lead to poor patient care and antimicrobial resistance and therefore it is important to address this. It is also important to address the appropriateness of antibiotics as inappropriate antibiotic prescription can lead to failure of treatment as well as antimicrobial resistance. The good points from the audit was that all patients had clear documentation of dose, route and frequency which is extremely important in the administration of antibiotics. Recommendations from this audit included to emphasize good antimicrobial prescribing at induction (twice yearly), an antimicrobial handbook for junior doctors, and re-audit in 6 months time.

Keywords: prescribing, antimicrobial, indication, duration

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Authors: Liam Martin, Martha Watson

Abstract:

Patients with learning disabilities (LD) are at increased risk of physical and mental illness due to health inequality. To address this, NICE recommends that people from the age of 14 with a learning disability should have an annual LD health check. This consultation should include a holistic review of the patient’s physical, mental and social health needs with a view of creating an action plan to support the patient’s care. The expected standard set by the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is that each general practice should review at least 75% of their LD patients annually. During COVID-19, there have been barriers to primary care, including health anxiety, the shift to online general practice and the increase in GP workloads. A surgery in North London wanted to assess whether they were falling short of the expected standard for LD patient annual reviews in order to optimize care post Covid-19. A baseline audit was completed to assess how many LD patients were receiving their annual reviews over the period of 29th September 2020 to 29th September 2021. This information was accessed using EMIS Web Health Care System (EMIS). Patients included were aged 14 and over as per QOF standards. Doctors were not notified of this audit taking place. Following the results of this audit, the creation of learning disability clinics was recommended. These clinics were recommended to be on the ground floor and should be a dedicated time for LD reviews. A re-audit was performed via the same process 6 months later in March 2022. At the time of the baseline audit, there were 71 patients aged 14 and over that were on the LD register. 54% of these LD patients were found to have documentation of an annual LD review within the last 12 months. None of the LD patients between the ages of 14-18 years old had received their annual review. The results were discussed with the practice, and dedicated clinics were set up to review their LD patients. A second pass of the audit was completed 6 months later. This showed an improvement, with 84% of the LD patients registered at the surgery now having a documented annual review within the last 12 months. 78% of the patients between the ages of 14-18 years old had now been reviewed. The baseline audit revealed that the practice was not meeting the expected standard for LD patient’s annual health checks as outlined by QOF, with the most neglected patients being between the ages of 14-18. Identification and awareness of this vulnerable cohort is important to ensure measures can be put into place to support their physical, mental and social wellbeing. Other practices could consider an audit of their annual LD health checks to make sure they are practicing within QOF standards, and if there is a shortfall, they could consider implementing similar actions as used here; dedicated clinics for LD patient reviews.

Keywords: COVID-19, learning disability, learning disability health review, quality and outcomes framework

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to examine the effects of internal audit innovation on firm performance effectiveness influences of financial report reliability, organizational process improvement, and risk management effectiveness. This paper drew upon the survey data collected from 400 employees survey conducted at Nonthaburi province, Thailand. The statistics utilized in this paper included percentage, mean, standard deviation, and regression analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of samples were between 31-40 years old, married, held an undergraduate degree, and had an average income between 10,000-15,000 baht. And also the results show that auditing integration has only influence on financial report reliability. Moreover, corporate risk evaluation has effect on firm performance by risk management effectiveness and control self-assessment has effect influence on firm performance by organizational process improvement and risk management effectiveness as well.

Keywords: corporate risk evaluation, firm performance effectiveness, internal audit innovation, marketing management

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Umran Kahraman, Huseyin Cetin

Abstract:

Internet financial reporting and corporate governance issues are in the focus of academic and professional studies due to their attributed importance by stakeholders of corporations. Major aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between internet financial reporting which is held as dependent variable and some indicators of corporate governance such as the ratio of managerial ownership, blockholder ownership, number of independent members in the board of directors, frequency of meetings by audit committee and education level of audit committee members which are held as independent variables. Main purpose is to reveal the effect of corporate governance on the voluntary efforts of Internet Financial reporting. The scope of the research is limited to the Turkish Corporations listed in Borsa Istanbul (Istanbul Stock Exchange) and findings which are generated by means of SPSS software are revealed in results section and interpreted in conclusions.

Keywords: audit committee, corporate governance, internet financial reporting, managerial ownership

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Authors: Amel Osman, Stewart McKenna

Abstract:

Aim: Fever may present as the sole sign of a serious underlying infection in young infants. Febrile Infants aged less than 90 days are at an elevated susceptibility to invasive bacterial infections, thus presenting a challenge in ensuring the appropriate management of these cases. This study aims to ensure strict adherence to NICE guidelines for the management of fever in infants between 0 and 90 days presenting to Tallaght Hospital ED. A comprehensive audit, followed by a re-audit, was conducted to enhance the quality of care delivered to these patients. In accordance with NICE guidelines, all febrile infants should undergo blood tests. Additionally, LP should be performed in all neonates under 28 days, infants displaying signs of illness, and those with WCC below 5 or above 15. Method: A retrospective case review was performed, encompassing all patients aged between 0 to 90 days who presented with fever at Tallaght ED. Data retrieval was conducted from electronic records on two separate occasions, six months apart. The evaluation encompassed the assessment of body temperature as well as both partial and full septic workups. Results: Over the study period, 150 infants presented to the ED with fever in the initial audit, and 120 in the re-audit. In the first study, 81 patients warranted a full septic workup as per NICE, but only 48 received it. Conversely, 40 patients met criteria for a partial septic workup, with 12 undergoing blood tests. In the second study, 73 patients qualified for a full septic workup, of which 52 were completed. Additionally, 27 patients were indicated for a partial workup, with 20 undergoing blood tests. Conclusion: Managing febrile infants under three months of age presenting to Tallaght ED remains a persistent challenge, underscoring the need for continuous educational initiatives to guarantee that these patients receive the requisite assessments and treatments.

Keywords: infants, fever, septic workup, tallaght

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Authors: Yasir Ramadhan

Abstract:

This study aims to investigate tax avoidance practices when a financial crisis occurs due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also finds out how the influence of independent commissioners and external auditors on tax avoidance practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tax avoidance practices are measured by the current ETR. The role of the independent board of commissioners is measured by the proportion of independent commissioners in the composition of the board of commissioners, while the external auditor is measured by audit quality. In this study, there were 342 observations of companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2020. This study used the difference-in-differences (DiD) method in data analysis. The results of this study indicate that companies do tax avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, independent commissioners and qualified audits are not proven to be able to negate tax avoidance practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic. These results also show that a higher proportion of independent commissioners and audit quality are not sufficient for countries with low levels of auditor litigation and investor protection and weak regulatory frameworks.

Keywords: audit, commissioner, tax avoidance, COVID-19 pandemic

Procedia PDF Downloads 149