Weight	40% of the total assessments
Total Marks	40
Word limit	3,000 words ± 500 words
Due Date	Group Formation: Please form the group by self-enrolling in Blackboard. There should be a maximum of 4 members in a group—email [email protected] for any issues with self-enrolling into groups.   Assignment submission: Final Submission of Group Assignment: Week 10, Friday at 11:59 pm.   Late submission incurs penalties of five (5) % of the assessment per calendar day unless an extension and/or special consideration has been granted by Student Services of your campus prior to the assessment deadline.
SubmissionGuidelines	All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date, along with a completed Assignment Cover Page. The assignment must be in MS Word format, single spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page numbers. All reference sources must be provided using Holmes Harvard referencing style. Holmes will be implementing as a pilot program a revised Harvard approach to referencing. The following guidelinesapply:   1. Reference sources in assignments are limited to sources which provide full text access to the source’s content for

 

lecturers and markers. 2.       The Reference list should be located on a separate page at the end of the essay and titled: References. 3.       It should include the details of all the in-text citations, arranged alphabetically A-Z by author surname. Inaddition, it MUST include a hyperlink to the full text of the cited reference source. For example; P Hawking, B McCarthy, A Stein (2004), Second Wave ERP Education, Journal of Information Systems Education,Fall, http://jise.org/Volume15/n3/JISEv15n3p327.pdf 4.       All assignments will require additional in-text reference details which will consist of the surname of the author/authors or name of the authoring body, year of publication, page number of contents, paragraph wherethe content can be found. For example; “The company decided to implement a enterprise wide data warehouse business intelligence strategies(Hawking et al, 2004, p3(4)).   Non-Adherence to Referencing Guidelines Where students do not follow the above guidelines: 1.       Students who submit assignments which do not comply with the guidelines will be penalised by 10% from the total awarded marks. 2.       Students who comply with guidelines and the citations are “fake” will be reported for academic misconduct

 

Assignment Specifications

 Required Task:

 Part A: (25 marks)

 Listed companies are required to make certain disclosures in their annual reports about the compensation paid to their top executives. One reason for this is to help interested stakeholders assess the performance of executives. It also helps executives and companies set appropriate compensation levels, based on what other companies in the same industry and/or of the same size are paying their executives. These disclosures are audited.

Required

 Obtain the annual reports of 10 listed Australian companies in the same industry from the Year 2020. (Hint: See www.asx.com.au for a list of companies on the ASX, industry membership and links to company websites where you can download annual reports.) Extract the information on executive remuneration and describe the data using graphs and tables. Write a report addressing the following questions (justify your responses by referring to the data where appropriate).

1. How are the executives paid (cash, bonuses )?
2. Discuss details about executive qualification, experiences and
3. Which companies’ executives are paid the most and what is the range of pay?
4. Which companies’ executives’ pay is most linked to the company’s profit and/or share price performance?

(Explain any assumptions you have to make.)

5. Overall, what do you conclude about how Australian company executives are paid and how clearly the compensation data is reported?

 

Part B: (10 marks)

 Explain Auditing in times of social distancing: the effect of COVID-19 on auditing quality proposed by Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in the following situations:

1. What should be the focus areas for auditors under COVID-19 conditions?
2. Should audit fees be reduced when reviewing other cost saving initiatives?
3. Should an auditor delay their opinion until a limitation or uncertainty is resolved?
4. What should be influence of COVID-19 and going concern assessment?

 

The assignment structure must be as follows:

1. Holmes Institute Assignment Cover Sheet – Full Name, Student , Contribution.

2.       Executive Summary

1. The Executive summary should be concise and not involve too much
2. It should make commentary on the main points only and follow the sequence of the
3. Write the Executive Summary after the report is completed, and once you have an overview of the whole

3. The Executive Summary appears on the first page of the
4. Contents Page – This needs to show a logical listing of all the sub-headings of the report’s contents. Note

this is excluded from the total word count.

5. Introduction – A short paragraph which includes background, scope and the main points raised in order of There should be a brief conclusion statement at the end of the Introduction.
6. Main Body Paragraphs with numbered sub-headings – Detailed information which elaborates on the main points raised in the Each paragraph should begin with a clear topic sentence, then supporting

sentences with facts and evidence obtained from research and finish with a concluding sentence at the

end.

7. Conclusion – A logical and coherent evaluation based on a thorough and an objective assessment of the research
8. Appendices – Include any additional explanatory information which is supplementary and/ or graphical to help communicate the main ideas made in the Refer to the appendices in the main body paragraphs, as and where appropriate. (Note this is excluded from the total word count.

 

Group submission Guideline:

 To ensure that all students participate equitably in the group assignment and that students are responsible for theacademic integrity of all components of the assignment. You need to complete the following Group Assignment Task Allocation table, relevant evidence (authenticity of your assignment) which identifies which student/students are responsible for the various sections of the assignment.

This table needs to be completed and submitted with the assignment as it is a compulsory component requiredbefore any grading is undertaken. Students that are registered in a solo group are not required to fill this table.

Both assessment items must be submitted on Blackboard. The written assignment must be in a report format and submitted through safe-assign prior to final submission. The originality percentage should be as low as possible. The written submission must be double-checked, edited and rephrased if the originality percentage and plagiarism risk is noted as high, as per safe-assign.