Muscat College Beal Hypermarket Case Discussion

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DEGREE: ACCOUNTING, AUDITING & FINANCE
Semester – Summer 2020
Final Exam
Date: 1
st Sept 2020
Time: From 9:45 am to 11.45 pm
Subject: Internal Audit & Financial Control
Total Marks: 80
Instruction:
1. This exam is covering your section B and C of the final exam.
2. Write only answers for the mentioned questions in a word file.
3. Upload the word file in your Turnitin class before 11:45 pm on the date of exam.
4. Write your name and student number on the front page of the word file.
5. Use your own words to write the answers.
6. There is no minimum or maximum word limit. Try to be specific in your answers. Don’t
write unnecessary information.
Turnitin ID: 25541320
Password: finance
Assessor: Dr. Salman
Internal Verifier: Ms Mariam
College of Banking and Financial Studies
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Note: Instructions for Section B and C.
Read the case study carefully. All questions are compulsory. Answer each of the question in
specific points. Try to avoid writing in paragraphs. Write specific points while answering each
question. Don’t write unnecessary information as this could attract reduction in marks. You
can use secondary sources (like in-text referencing and end reference list) while answering the
questions. However, main answer should be based on your observations and opinion.
Beal Hypermarket Case
Mr. Zen is the sole owner and manager of Beal Hypermarket. You are the internal auditor of
Beal Hypermarket. Mr. Sam is working as a supervisor in Beal Hypermarket. Beal
Hypermarket sells consumer goods to individual customers and has branches spread across the
country. There are nearly ten cashiers operating different cash machines of the hypermarket.
Recently Ms. Mary was recruited as one of the cashiers in the hypermarket. Her references and
declaration were not checked properly. Mary is sister of Sam. Although Mary informed this in
her employee declaration form but was overlooked by the HR team. The management was not
aware about the relationship between Sam and Mary. Sam and Mary started taking money from
receipts and were not recording the revenue on the books. This was possible as Sam was
supervisor and had the admin password for controlling cancelled sales. Regular act of Sam and
Mary made a major gap between inventory counts and cash registers. Sam is the favorite
employee of Zen as he received employee of the year award consequently for the past three
years. Sam has the habit of giving expensive gifts to Zen in his birthdays and anniversaries.
Another employee Nancy is not liked by anyone in the organization because she doesn’t talk
to anyone at the workplace. She is very reserve at the workplace. Your brother is working in a
bank and Zen’s wife is the branch manager of that bank. Recent meeting of internal audit
department, purchase department and the management located few observations:
a) Purchase department is controlled by only one employee, ie Mr. Ven. Ven is
responsible for ordering the inventory, cash disbursements, keeping inventory counts
and recording them at the end of the week. He is very honest and had no reported case
of unethical practices since his tenure of more than 10 years. The internal auditor is
arguing against the will of management for having full trust and confidence on one
person in such a critical post.
b) Mr. John is the security director of the hypermarket and has all the admin and security
passwords. He has joined the firm last year and had excellent employment history with
other firms. The management of the firm had many arguments and disagreements with
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John since he joined the firm. Management has recommended the internal auditor of
the firm to pursue an IT audit and accept that John is guilty. However, the records show
no trace of IT fraud in this type of scenario.
c) HR department has pointed out that the inventory counts are giving misleading figures
since two employees joined the firm, Ms Mary and Ms Nancy, both in the cash
department. HR department gave their observations to have an employment check for
them.
d) John is blaming that Zen is having all master passwords and master keys for physical
locks. John is pointing out one aspect of fraud triangle.
e) Nancy had a poor employment history and was caught in internal theft by her previous
employer. She lost her job and had to serve a prison sentence of 6 months before joining
Beal Hypermarket. This was overlooked by the HR department and the management
during her recruitment and selection process. Every employee in the firm is now
suspicious of Nancy. They feel that Nancy should be terminated from her job and
immediately handed over to the police for further investigation.
SECTION – B (50% weight age)
Tasks / Questions
1) As an internal auditor, identify key issues and threats faced by the firm? (5 marks)
2) Do you feel there is a fraud going on in the case firm? If yes, Identify the main
person/(s) responsible for the fraud. (10 marks)
3) Which type of lack of internal control measure/(s) (preventive, detective or corrective)
are applicable in this case. Use specific answer. (10 marks)
4) Which specific fraud triangle aspect is pointed out by John? Pinpoint any other fraud
triangle aspects applicable for the case firm. (10 marks)
5) You want to conduct an IT audit before giving your recommendations. Which technique
will be used by you and write proper sequence of events while conducting the audit?
You can use some diagrams or pictures to reflect your findings. (5 marks)
6) Do you suggest any legal actions, penalties or fines against the employees found guilty
(in question 2)? If yes, pinpoint those actions. Justify why these actions should be
implemented. (5 marks)
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7) Write a summary report highlighting your understanding of the case. Do you feel it
becomes challenging and difficult to conduct an internal audit against the management?
Write your learning derived with specific points. (5 marks)
SECTION: C (30% weight age)
Q8. What do you mean by ethical culture and ethical dilemma? Are they same or different?
Explain various threats to the internal auditor’sindependence. Pinpoint specific threat or threats
to the internal auditor’s independence while working with Beal Hypermarket. (20 marks)
Q9. Is Beal Hypermarket a high-risk client? If yes, which specific audit risk is applicable in
this case. justify your opinion. (10 marks)
* * * E n d o f t h e E x a m * * *

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