University of Zimbabwe

FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SCIENCES AND ECONOMICS

Department of Finance and Accounting

COURSE OUTLINE

COURSE TITLE: - Advanced Financial Accounting & Corporate Reporting

COURSE NUMBER: - ACCN

NAME OF LECTURER: - Mr T. Tazvishaya (0773 610 198)

Mrs D Jemwa (0772 701 450)

Contact details: -

Emails: [email protected]

(1) Description and Rationale

The debate around Accountability has gained increased prominence over the last decade
owing to the problems that business and commerce have faced both from shareholders
and regulators. There have been repeated calls by stakeholders that regulators monitor
more closely the behaviour of managing directors as management is seen as being
dismissive of their responsibility to ensure that stakeholders are protected.

Management is being viewed with increasing suspicion as they award themselves large
remuneration packages against the backdrop of poor profit forecasts and dwindling share
prices. A further cause of investor consternation has been the propensity of certain
sectors to expose them to the realistic possibility of bankruptcy owing to what is
perceived to be lackadaisical financial prudence. The banking industry, for example, has
been singled out for significant criticism for this reason.

(2) Purpose of the Course

This course addresses, reviews and analyses underlying issues in corporate governance.
This course provides students with a thorough grounding in corporate governance theory
and practice. Students will acquire and demonstrate specialist knowledge of the different
elements of governance mechanisms and their interdependencies. Students will be
provided with the skills necessary to apply theories to aid in the analysis of different
systems of corporate governance.
 This course focuses on some of the contentious issues in transparency and accountability
that govern the activities of publicly quoted corporations. Its purpose is to give you some
additional skills in analysing different systems of corporate governance. To achieve this
we shall examine some of the mechanisms applied in governance and examine theoretical
ideas underlying the process of good governance from an international perspective. We
will examine the regulatory requirements placed upon reporting entities and the issues
they face and decisions required of them.

The course cannot hope to cover the multiplicity of difficulties inherent in governance,
however it should provides you with the ability to question the validity and utility of
some of the corporate governance mechanisms put forward as standard and their effect on
the stewardship of publicly quoted companies or on the analysis of their performance.

(3) Aims of the Course

 To review and analyse a range of theoretical topics in corporate governance in the context
of recent collapses in governance systems of banks and financial institutions;
 To develop an understanding of the various conceptual frameworks applied on a global
context;
 To provide a broadly-based understanding of the problems that face investors and
markets in determining the level of transparency and accountability in various
organisations
 To review and analyse a range of theoretical topics in corporate governance, in the
context of transparency and accountability;
 To develop an understanding of the various governance systems, their rationale, drivers
and frameworks within which they operate;
 To provide a broadly-based understanding of the problems faced by different governance
systems both public and private and their attempts at mitigating agency problems.

(4) Learning Outcomes

 Investigate and critically evaluate a range of corporate governance systems and the
conceptual framework that underpins them.
 Critically assess and evaluate the purpose of corporate governance mechanisms from a
practical perspective and from within the economic theory framework.
 Explore issues relating to both the interaction of corporate governance systems with the
internal and external environment
 Review the effectiveness of the development and impact of codes of best practice in
corporate governance
 Explain the purpose of accounting information as a basis for decision-making;
 Identify extant user groups of financial reports;
 Analyse and interpret financial reports of international enterprises;
 Review selected accounting standards and discusses their theoretical underpinning.
 Skills Development
 Communication: To help with the development of this you will present your
proposal of the solution to your peers in a lecture environment which will be
interactive in nature.

Information Literacy: To help with the development of this you will be required
to demonstrate your ability in interpreting and discriminating between relevant
and irrelevant information both during your class tests and during your self
assessment tests.

Research and Evaluation: To help with the development of this you will be led to
read the necessary regulations of the Companies Act and The London Stock
Exchange in order to identify relevant articles in the subject area of study.

Creativity and Critical Thinking: To help with the development of this you will be
required to be able to critically distinguish between research that is relevant and
that which is not applicable in the context of the case being studied.

(5) Course Content

Topic IFRS/Conceptual Framework/ Model Status

Topic 1 Recap of the need for Financial Awareness Level
Reporting/IASB’s Conceptual Framework for
General Purpose Financial Statments
Topic 2 Recap of IAS/IFRS -Introductory- Awareness Level
Intermediate Level to gauge knowledge
IAS 2, IAS 7, IAS 8, IAS 10, IAS 16, IAS 20, Awareness Level
IAS 23, IAS 36, IAS 37, IAS 38, IAS 40, IAS
41, IFRS 1, IFRS 5, IFRS 8
Topic 3 Accounting for Taxes- IAS 12 Examinable
Topic 4 Accounting Revenues – IFRS 15 Examinable
Topic 5 Accounting for Leases -IFRS 16 Examinable
Topic 6 Accounting fir Financial Examinable
Instruments-IAS32/IFRS 9
Topic 7 Accounting for Groups- Simple- Complex Examinable
IAS27,IAS 28, IFRS 3, IFRS 10, IFRS 11,
IFRS 12
Topic 8 Group Cashflow Statements -IAS 7 Examinable
Topic 9 Financial Statement Analysis- IAS 33 Examinable
General Performance Evaluation
Topic 10 Emerging Issues – Examinable
- Sustainability Reporting/ ESG
- Big Data Analytics
- Integrated Reporting
- Public Private Partnership
Topic 11 Share Bases Payments -IFRS 2 Examinable
Topic 12 Employee Benefits -IAS 19 Examinable
Topic 13 IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures Examinable

(6) METHODS/STRATEGIES OF TEACHING

The teaching strategy will include lectures, case studies, academic journals, group discussions,
class presentations, power point projector and chalk and board. Each topic will be introduced by
a lecture to provide information and ideas, and to raise questions and promote discussion.
Lectures will not normally last longer than 2 hours, and the remainder of each four hour session
will be taken up with exercises, discussions and case study analysis. Seminar sessions will
usually involve the working of exercises which will require students to demonstrate an
understanding of theory and application to a specific case in Corporate Governance. This is very
important, as your assessments for this course will require the use and development of critical
thinking and other analytical skills.

Work on this course will necessitate considerable self-study time outside the classroom. You
should be ready for this, and plan your time accordingly. The more reading you do, and the more
exercises you work (there are plenty in the text book), the more successful you will be. Some of
this self study work will be by e-learning using appropriate online material. You will be expected
to access the investor relations and corporate governance sections of selected corporate web
sites.

(7) ASSESSMENT SCHEME

The assessment structure for the course is made up of the following broad components in the
proportions shown in the table below:

Graded Individual Written Assignments & 1 In-class Test

30%

Presentations
10%

Total Course Work

40%

Final Examination-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
60%

TOTAL===========================================================10
0%

Plagiarism
To plagiarise is to take and use another person's thoughts, writings or inventions as one's own,
without acknowledging or giving the source of the ideas and expressions. Remember that if you
present material that you have not written as if it were your own (i.e. without attributing your
source by providing a reference), or if you copy work from another student this is viewed as a
serious academic offence. Please be aware that when you sign the front sheet before submitting
your work you are certifying that you fully understand what plagiarism is and that the work you
are submitting is all your own.

Plagiarism detection software will be used in this course. If evidence of plagiarism is found in
your work, you risk failing the course or being asked to withdraw from the course. To avoid any
charge of plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:
 another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
 any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, tables or accounts – any pieces of information that
are not common knowledge;
 quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
 a paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

Using large sections of material that have been cut and pasted from the internet is not generally
acceptable even if you supply details of the source. The work you submit should be in your own
words, except if you are quoting directly from a source: e.g. a definition. But use direct
quotations very sparingly and provide quotation marks with the page number from the original
source, in accordance with good referencing practice.

(8) Essential Readings

Core Text

(a) Mallin, C (2010) Corporate Governance, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford,
England

Supporting Texts

(b) Solomon, J (2010) Corporate Governance and Accountability, 3rd ed., John Wiley &
Sons; Chichester, England
(c) Tricker, B (2009) Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies and Practices, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, England
(d) Monks, R.A.G., and Minow, N (2008) Corporate Governance, 4th ed., Wiley-Blackwell,
Chichester, England
(e) Wearing, R (2005) Cases in Corporate Governance Sage Publications, London, England
(f) Clarke, T (2004) Theories of Corporate Governance Routledge, Oxon, England
(g) Keasey, K; Thompson, S. R. and Wright, M., (2005), Corporate Governance:
Accountability, Enterprise and International Comparisons. John Wiley and Sons,
England.
(h) Warren, R., (2000). Corporate Governance and Accountability, Liverpool Academic
Press.