Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Quality control of audit services'

The history of psychiatry is littered with serious failures of governance, to the detriment of mentally disordered people, especially those resident in psychiatric hospitals. Current mental health providers, increasingly focussed on community care, have also struggled to develop effective internal governance systems. Nine peer-reviewed research papers, published by the author (mostly with others) and the wider literature, reveal deficits in mental health governance at a jurisdictional, professional, and corporate level. In this thesis new governance solutions are developed against this background, built on contemporary principles in mental health and healthcare management. A new model of mental health governance is presented, based on the key demands of the strategic and regulatory environment, articulated as rights, risks and recovery. This integrated healthcare governance approach, covering provider policy, staff training and service audit, can monitor and ensure the protection of patients’ rights, as well as those of others; it also promotes the management of clinical risks, and of patients’ recovery outcomes. Rights-based risk-reduction training is the core interventional element of the model, whilst the monitoring element can be formalised as part of a Balanced Scorecard reporting system. This thesis makes a contribution to research methodology, theory and practice in mental health, human rights, healthcare management and governance. The model generates specific propositions for testing in mental health governance, with the potential for application in wider settings of service provision.

The faith in financial reporting quality and the corresponding auditing process has suffered a lot within the last decade, due to significant accounting scandals (e.g. Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, etc.). As an answer to these accounting scandals, the law-makers in Germany and the European Union, respectively, have strengthened audit regulations in order to improve the quality of the conducted audits. The aim of this cumulative dissertation is to provide empirical evidence on the effects of intended and already implemented regulative audit requirements in Germany. ln order to consider the wide range of different audit requirements, the dissertation is based on four different study manuscripts, highlighting various perspectives with regard to the appointment, duration, and remuneration of a statutory auditor in the German audit environment. Besides the empirical evidence for separate auditing issues, this dissertation is also aimed to provide a solid theoretical background and critical suggestions for future research.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2003-03-19T00:00:00Z<br>Apresenta um estudo dos aspectos organizacionais e de gestão, nas empresas do Estado de São Paulo que têm atuação na prática da 'auditoria médica', analisando a estrutura, os processos e os resultados dessa organização. Mostra a diversidade na organização desses serviços, enfocando os possíveis problemas advindos. Chega a uma relação de atividades que compôem o conceito de auditoria em saúde, frente aos objetivos das empresas, nas suas diversas atividades. Conclui que a atividade é multiprofissional e aborda a falta de regulamentação e de capacitação formal para os profissionais da área.

There is a growing research interest into investigating why NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines are not consistently followed in UK mental health services. The current study utilised grounded theory methodology to investigate clinical psychologists’ use of NICE guidelines. Eleven clinical psychologists working in routine practice in the NHS were interviewed. A theoretical framework was produced conceptualising the participants’ beliefs, decision making processes and clinical practices. The overall emerging theme was “considering NICE guidelines to have benefits but to be fraught with dangers”. Participants were concerned that guidelines can create an unhelpful illusion of neatness. They managed the tension between the helpful and unhelpful aspects of guidelines by relating to them in a flexible manner. The participants reported drawing on specialist skills such as idiosyncratic formulation and integration. However, as a result of pressure, and also the rewards that follow from being seen to comply with NICE guidelines, they tended to practice in ways that prevent these skills from being recognised. This led to fears that their professional identity was threatened, which impacted upon perceptions of the guidelines. This is the first theoretical framework that attempts to explain why NICE guidelines are not consistently utilised in UK mental health services. Attention is drawn to the proposed benefits and limitations of guidelines and how these are managed. This study highlights the importance of clinical psychologists articulating and advertising their specialist skills. The findings are integrated with existing theory and research, and clinical and research implications are presented.

Abstract The only observable outcome of the audit process is normally the issued audit report, which, at least in its standard form, does not contain much information about audit quality (Balsam et al. 2003). Auditor quality is multidimensional and inherently unobservable, and there is no single auditor characteristic that can be used as a proxy for it. In the absence of direct measures for quality, audit consumers must assess the quality by using quality surrogates, or the overall reputation of an auditor (e.g. Shapiro 1983, Riley 2001). The purpose of this dissertation is to enhance our understanding of the determinants and implications of quality-differentiated audits through four inter-related essays. The findings of the essays shed light on the various ways in which client firms strive to signal high audit and consequent earnings quality. From the supply-side perspective, the essays of this dissertation provide evidence how some (individual) auditors have been able to establish a reputation higher than the generic reputation. Importantly, this dissertation adds to the ongoing debate about the regulator changes and initiatives in the European Union and the U.S.A. requiring disclosure of engagement partner identity. The rationale behind such a requirement is that it could bring within investors’ reach greater transparency and accountability in the auditing process thereby helping to restore investor confidence in the capital markets. Consistent with this rationale, the results of this dissertation support the view that audit markets (and/or firm insiders) infer audit quality, at least to some extent, from the characteristics of the individual audit partner in charge.

Background: Over the years the EU, the US and the rest of the world have experienced several devastating financial crises. As a result of the Great Recession and several accounting scandals the EU-commission added new proposals of regulations. The Commission carried out a proposal to restrict the non-audit services to audit clients with the purpose to achieve improved audit quality and a more competitive market, which was later approved by the European Parliament.   Purpose &amp; Problem:  The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate how non-audit services to audit clients affect the audit quality and with that information evaluate the opinion divergence between the regulators and the practitioners, on providing non-audit services to audit clients and its effect on audit quality. Method: Our intentions were to compare collected evidence and earlier reports with fresh intake of raw data along with statements from several interview subjects from different positions such as the EU-commission and audit firms. By gathering information from both company personnel and state-working staff in the area of auditing, we obtained sufficient information on the thesis empirical findings we did also take part of professional bodies like IFAC and FAR.   Conclusion: Our conclusion is that both regulators and practitioners chose to define audit quality based on their own interests. We believe that this creates an opinion divergence. In order to resolve this conflict of interest, there is a need to agree on a universal definition of audit quality. To be more particular a definition that leave no room for ambiguities and misinterpretation regarding both practitioners and regulators.

This thesis is comprised of two studies. The first study investigates the incidence and magnitude of low-balling in the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) top 500 firms. In auditing, low-balling refers to the provision of audit services below their actual costs during the early years of an audit engagement (DeAngelo, 1981a). Indeed, low-balling is the ‘bait to catch’ for non-audit services or continuity of office. It has been the focus of regulatory bodies, practitioners, and academics because of its potential adverse influence on auditor independence and audit quality (Levin, 2002; Ramsay, 2001; SEC, 2000; Sewon & Wang, 2012; U.S. Senate, 2002). This study is primarily motivated by the non-trivial presence of auditor switch even within the ASX 500 firms. For example, there were 282 instances of auditor switch among the ASX top 500 firms between 2006 and 2016. This amounts to roughly 5% of ASX 500 firms switching their auditors every year. An auditor switch potentially creates an opportunity for a fee discounting in the first year of engagement, which in turn can raise questions about audit quality. Given the availability of audit fees data, the Australian setting offers an excellent opportunity to investigate whether auditor switches influence audit fees. The first study is motivated by increased attention on corporate governance and boards’ monitoring roles since the global financial crisis (Claessens, Dell’Ariccia, Igan, & Laeven, 2010; Erkens, Hung, & Matos, 2012; Goldin & Vogel, 2010; Woods, 2010; Xu, Carson, Fargher, & Jiang, 2013). Moreover, the ASX Corporate Governance Council issued ‘if not, why not’ type governance standards for public listed companies in 2003 (ASX, 2003). These standards oblige companies to publicly disclose their reasons to not comply with a Council recommendation. ASX Listing Rules mandate ASX top 300 companies to establish an audit committee and to provide a summary of their audit committee charters (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2014, p. 22). It is recommended that the committee comments on the provision of NAS (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2014, p. 22). Audit committees oversee the selection, remuneration, and dismissal of auditors. Hence, the new regulatory environment in Australia is likely to influence auditor switch and potentially any relation between auditor switch and audit fees. Furthermore, recent Australian studies on the relation between auditor switch and audit fees have focused on audit partner rotation (Ferguson, Lam, & Ma, 2017; Grosse, Ma, & Scott, 2018; Stewart, Kent, & Routledge, 2015). This study extends prior Australian studies by examining audit firm switches rather than partner switches. Although there are concerns regarding the influence of low-balling on auditor independence (Huang, Raghunandan, Huang, & Chiou, 2015; PCAOB, 2011), prior evidence suggests that low-balling is widely practised (DeAngelo, 1981a; Velte, 2012; Velte & Azibi, 2015). Moreover, in terms of motives for low-balling, DeAngelo (1981a) and Dye (1991) provide two opposing low-balling theories. DeAngelo (1981a) suggests that the initial fee is discounted in every setting, whereas Dye (1991) posits that public disclosure of fees prevents fee discounting. Thus, Australia provides a unique setting to analyse low-balling theories, as it requires public disclosure of audit and non-audit fees data (Craswell & Francis, 1999). Following prior studies, this study employs a parsimonious model that captures the most significant drivers of audit fees, including auditor switch (variable of interest). This study estimates its audit fees model using both ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and a random-effects technique. The first study examines audit fees data of ASX 500 companies from 2006 to 2016, based on their market capitalisation on 30 June 2016. This study compares the first year's audit fees and total fees of the incumbent auditor against the last fee charged by the former auditor to calculate fee discounting. An audit fee estimation model regresses fees against some variables that are either positively or negatively related to them based on evidence in the extant literature (Hay, Knechel, & Wong, 2006). Audit fees are regressed on a set of control variables, namely: the size of an auditee’s revenue (Iyer & Iyer, 1996; Maher, Tiessen, Colson, & Broman, 1992), audit committee size (Vafeas & Waegelein, 2007), audit committee independence (Lee & Mande, 2005), audit committee expertise (Abbott, Parker, Peters, & Raghunandan, 2003b), auditor quality (Choi, Kim, Kim, & Zang, 2010), audit opinion (Simunic, 1980), provision of non-audit services (Simon, 1985; Simunic, 1984), leverage (Choi, Kim, Liu, & Simunic, 2008), inventory (Gul, Chen, & Tsui, 2003), receivables (Gul et al., 2003; Singh, Woodliff, Sultana, & Newby, 2014), auditor switch in the first year after a switch (Garsombke & Armitage, 1993), return on assets ratio (ROA) (Huang, Raghunandan, & Rama, 2009), and quick ratio (Singh et al., 2014). The total fees model also considers NAFRATIO (the ratio of an auditee’s nonaudit to audit fees) (Hay et al., 2006; Whisenant, Sankaraguruswamy, & Raghunandan, 2003) and Loss (1 if an auditee has a bottom-line loss, else 0) (Desir, Casterella, & Kokina, 2013) as two additional control variables that are likely to influence total fees. The remaining control variables are as per the audit fees model. The data are obtained from ASX, Connect 4, Morningstar, and companies’ annual reports. The first study shows that of the 282 instances of auditor switch among the ASX top 500 firms between 2006 and 2016, 155 (55%) switches were to Big Four, and 127 (45%) switches were to non-Big Four. There is evidence that companies switch more frequently from non-Big Fours to Big Fours than they do from Big Fours to non-Big Fours. Results based on multivariate analysis suggest that auditor switch does not affect either audit fees or total fees. Thus, in the sample of ASX top 500 firms throughout 2006- 2016, there is no evidence of low-balling associated with auditor switch. Moreover, an auditee size is the most significant determinant of its audit and total fees. Findings are robust to various robustness checks, namely: heteroscedasticity; multicollinearity; exclusion of audit committee expertise, quick ratio, and mid-tier audit firms; different switching sub-categories, random-effects model, audit fees change model, total fees change model. Between the two competing theories of low-balling, the results are more consistent with Dye (1991) than with DeAngelo (1981a). This finding is potentially due to the public disclosure of audit and non-audit fees in Australia. The first study also examines the relationship between the audit committee and audit fees. Results show that audit committee existence is not associated with audit fees. However, audit committee quality, measured by audit committee size, independence, and expertise, is positively associated with audit fees. This finding is because a high-quality audit committee demands higher audit effort and quality, leading to higher audit fees. In contrast, audit committee quality is not associated with audit fees in case of an auditor switch. This result is because public disclosure of audit fees deters auditors from discounting their initial audit fees in Australia. The first study has several contributions. First, it provides recent evidence of the price efficiency of the audit market in Australia. Results suggest that auditor switch does not lead to a significant fee reduction in the initial audit engagement in the sample of ASX top 500 firms. To the extent audit fees reflect audit quality (DeFond & Zhang, 2014; Ireland & Lennox, 2002), this study is likely to enhance users’ confidence in the audit reports of the ASX top 500 firms in Australia. Second, the first study provides recent evidence that the Australian audit market is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of the Big Fours with more firms switching from non-Big Fours to Big Fours. Such concentration of the audit market could be the result of several factors, including increased audit complexity over time, demand for higher audit quality over time, and competitive advantages of the Big Four auditors over non-Big Fours. Third, although the rotation of audit firms is not mandatory in Australia, many of the ASX top 500 listed companies switched their audit firms throughout the 2006-2016 period. The results of the first study support the argument that a low-balling outlaw is not necessary for Australia. Fourth, this study shows that public fee disclosure can prevent low-balling practices, supporting Dye (1991) theory. The second study of this thesis examines the influence of non-audit services (NAS) on audit quality in Australia. Auditors are more likely to report their discoveries if their litigation and reputation losses are higher than the benefits associated with their NAS (Hong-jo, Choi, & Cheung, 2017). Hence, popular media frequently question the potential implications of NAS on audit quality (Kahn, 2002; Solomon, 2002). A significant audit failure that is associated with the provision of NAS initiates a regulatory response (Schmidt, 2012). For example, a key motivation of Ramsay (2001) to provide a report regarding the independence of auditors was the rise of NAS provided by large accounting firms in Australia (Ramsay, 2001, p. 6). Thus, there are theoretical reasons to believe that the provision of NAS will lead to reduced audit quality. Most prior studies that investigated the association between NAS and audit quality were undertaken in the United States (U.S.) setting, where evidence was mixed (Blay & Geiger, 2013; Church, Jenkins, McCracken, Roush, & Stanley, 2014; Knechel & Sharma, 2012; Prawitt, Sharp, & Wood, 2012). The second study is primarily motivated by the limitations of prior studies in this area, especially the U.S. studies. Specifically, previous U.S. studies potentially suffered from the self-selection bias, as before 2001, listed firms in the U.S. were not required to publicly disclose the amount and nature of the fees to their auditors (Dickins & Higgs, 2005). Moreover, although the SOX mandated the public disclosure of fees paid to auditors, it has banned U.S. listed firms from acquiring particular NAS (such as actuarial services) from their auditors (Dickins & Higgs, 2005). Second, unlike the U.S., Australia permits auditors to provide NAS. However, all NAS require prior approval of the audit committee and subsequent disclosure of the paid fees (Patel & Prasad, 2013). Further, ASX Listing Rules mandate ASX 300 companies to have an audit committee. It is recommended that the committee comments on the provision of NAS (ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2014, p. 22). Hence, the new regulatory environment in Australia is likely to influence audit quality and potentially any relation between NAS and audit quality. Finally, there is limited evidence in Australia on the link between NAS and audit quality. Most prior studies regarding NAS and audit quality in Australia predated CLERP 9 (Craswell, Stokes, & Laughton, 2002; Gul, Tsui, & Dhaliwal, 2006; Ruddock, Taylor, & Taylor, 2006). The second study focuses on two widely used measures of audit quality: auditor’s propensity to issue a going-concern audit opinion and discretionary accruals to address the hypothesis that the provision of NAS impairs audit quality in Australia. This study uses a logistic regression for its going-concern audit opinion model as its dependent variable is binary (DeFond & Zhang, 2014). However, it uses the OLS regression technique for its discretionary accruals model as its dependent variable is continuous. The experimental variables of the second study are LnNon-auditFees (natural log of an auditee’s non-audit fees in dollar value) and NASTF (the ratio of an auditee’s non-audit to total fee) for both going-concern audit opinion and discretionary accruals models. The second study uses the sample of ASX top 500 companies throughout 2006-2016. Results support the second study’s hypothesis that NAS impair audit quality. This study contributes to the current debate regarding the relationship between NAS and audit quality. Findings of this study are essential to standard setters (such as AUASB). Findings of this study suggest that the current regulatory environment does not appear to safeguard enough audit quality in Australia. Thus, proposals to regulate NAS to a greater extent may be necessary as current NAS practice deteriorates audit quality. Specifically, this study shows that economic and social bonding of NAS may encourage auditors to sacrifice their independence and reduce their audit quality. Furthermore, the findings have important policy implications for other Anglo-American countries (e.g., the UK) because of the similarities of their regulatory setting with Australia. However, additional analysis suggests that providing NAS to clients can compromise audit quality of some auditors (such as Deloitte or Bentleys), supporting this study’s hypothesis. However, it does not impair audit quality of others (such as PWC or PKF), supporting prior studies that conclude NAS do not impair audit quality (Church et al., 2014; Knechel & Sharma, 2012; Mitra, 2007; Reynolds, Deis Jr, & Francis, 2004). Overall, further analysis suggests that a gain in audit efficiency and a decline in audit quality are both at play when auditors provide NAS to their clients. Thus, whether audit quality will improve or decline due to the provision of NAS depends on market characteristics and auditor characteristics. These results explain why there is mixed evidence in the literature when it comes to NAS and audit quality.<br>Thesis (PhD Doctorate)<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>Dept Account,Finance & Econ<br>Griffith Business School<br>Full Text

This study provides a comprehensive analysis to investigate the impact of this increase in NAS on audit quality by using three proxies of audit quality: the absolute value of discretionary accruals, the issuance of going-concern opinions, and audit fees. The results of robustness and sensitivity tests also largely support the significant relationship between NAS and audit quality. Findings from this study have important implications for regulators, investors, scholars, corporate management, and auditors.

The transmission of realtime audio data across digital networks is subject to strict quality of service requirements. These networks need to be able to guarantee network resources (e.g., bandwidth), ensure timely and deterministic data delivery, and provide time synchronisation mechanisms to ensure successful transmission of this data. Two open standards-based networking technologies, namely IEEE 1394 and the recently standardised Ethernet AVB, provide distinct methods for achieving these goals. Audio devices that are compatible with IEEE 1394 networks exist, and audio devices that are compatible with Ethernet AVB networks are starting to come onto the market. There is a need for mechanisms to provide compatibility between the audio devices that reside on these disparate networks such that existing IEEE 1394 audio devices are able to communicate with Ethernet AVB audio devices, and vice versa. The audio devices that reside on these networks may be remotely controlled by a diverse set of incompatible command and control protocols. It is desirable to have a common network-neutral method of control over the various parameters of the devices that reside on these networks. As part of this study, two Ethernet AVB systems were developed. One system acts as an Ethernet AVB audio endpoint device and another system acts as an audio gateway between IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB networks. These systems, along with existing IEEE 1394 audio devices, were used to demonstrate the ability to transfer audio data between the networking technologies. Each of the devices is remotely controllable via a network neutral command and control protocol, XFN. The IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB devices are used to demonstrate the use of the XFN protocol to allow for network neutral connection management to take place between IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB networks. User control over these diverse devices is achieved via the use of a graphical patchbay application, which aims to provide a consistent user interface to a diverse range of devices.

Different scandals around the globe during the past, in specific during the last decade, have intrigued the stakeholders to question the roles of both auditors and management. But most of the fingers since then have been raised on the role of auditors, because it is the auditors who are entrusted with the responsibility to detect any errors or frauds in the financial reports of the client-firm. Apart from this, the long-term auditor client relationship has been the center of attention in most of the discussions and debates as well. Numerous studies have been conducted by the academic researchers, financial and professional analysts, regulatory authorities and governing bodies, and in some cases by the auditors and the firms as well regarding the effects of long-term auditor-client relationship on audit quality, equity risk premium, financial reports quality, audit pricing etc. These studies provide us with different results, both with the positive and negative associations and effects of long-term auditor-client relationship on the basis of different factors and contexts. For long, auditing has been discussed in different studies and research areas but mostly in association with publicly listed companies. Less attention has been paid to the relationship of auditors and clients as far as clients in SMEs are concerned. In any country around the globe, SMEs are of major contribution in terms of backing the economy, giving it both the boost and the stability, as they collectively form the major chunk of the economy. If we specify our study to the SMEs in Sweden, then 99% of the enterprises in Sweden represent the SME sector; in addition they employ around 60% of the manpower. Based on these facts, and due to less attention given to auditor-client relationship in terms of SMEs, instead of; we have directed our concerns towards the study of effects of auditor-client relationship on audit quality in SMEs in this particular research study. In this study, we have opted for qualitative research with semi-structured interviews to be used as the tool for data collection. Interviews were conducted with two different groups of interviewees, one group representing the auditors and the other group representing the client-firms (SMEs). A total of seven interviews were conducted in order to strengthen and validate the results for our research question. Due to the limitations of this study, mostly in terms of cost and time, samples were selected from Umeå, Sweden. The data interview structure, data analysis and discussion, and conclusions were all made based on existing theories summarized in the theoretical review of this study. The results of this study suggests that (1) long-term audit tenure is beneficial for the audit quality if certain risk factors like risk of auditor independence and risk of developing complacency are controlled; and (2) factors such as NAS, industry specialization, knowledge and experience of the auditor, internal control in the client-firm, professional ethics, proper audit plan, providence of unbiased information by the client, and appointment of the auditor by the client-firm itself enhances the audit quality.

Methods of control of providing users with VoIP over LTE network services are considered for the basic classes of LTE QoS in UMTS / 3GPP with the availability of the following traffic classes conversational, interactive and streaming.Shown testing, calculation, analysis and evaluation of quality parameters for VoIP over LTE network services, the behavior of VoLTE MOS vs. packet loss Ppl and Pjitter, VoLTE MOS vs. effective packet loss VoLTE.

Non-audit services provided by audit firms have been a popular scientific topic within the fields of audit and accounting research over the past decades. Numerous researchers have attempted to provide a theoretical contribution by examining different ways of measuring the concepts of audit quality and financial reporting quality. The resulting consequences are mixed results and a lack of consensus among researchers from both research fields. The two, in other situations, rather distinctive research fields of audit quality and financial reporting quality, have, in several cases, been confounded without analytical reflection regarding their differences. In parallel to the scientific progress, regulatory bodies have noticed the increasing trend of non-audit services and how they constitute larger portions of the audit firm’s annual revenues. Their responses have been legal restrictions, both in the US and Europe, in order to cease the trend. The purpose of this thesis is to make a pronounced investigation regarding the relationship between non-audit services and financial reporting quality in Swedish private firms. Furthermore, it will also be of interest to examine if this proposed relationship is moderated by the presence of the four global market-leading audit firms or not. The study is based on a deductive approach and a quantitative research strategy, to collect and analyze data from annual reports. To fulfill the purpose of the study, the data is analyzed by conducting binary and multinomial logistic regression tests. The results suggest that there is an association between certain types of non-audit services and financial reporting quality. Specifically, services that are unrelated to tax have proven to be statistically significant positively correlated with financial reporting quality. No evidence was found supporting a moderating effect by the characteristics of audit firms, suggesting that the choice of an audit firm is irrelevant for attaining high financial reporting quality when purchasing non-audit services. The study’s theoretical contribution is the novelty arising from the combination of studying non-audit services’ impact on financial reporting quality within a Swedish setting on private firms. The study also provides empirical contribution by using a proxy for financial reporting quality rarely used in previous research. The findings are of practical importance since they suggest that firms potentially benefit in their financial reporting by purchasing these kinds of services, which contradicts past actions made by regulatory bodies.

Thesis (MTech (Quality))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.<br>The quality assurance role is an essential function in high risk industries such as the nuclear power industry where process failures can potentially have catastrophic results. As part of mitigating the risk inherent in such industries, the need for reliable quality assurance cannot be over-emphasised. Underpinning a reliable quality assurance function, lies the need for effective identification of risk; as well as effective decision making processes by competent auditors. A nuclear quality assurance (QA) department has noted an increase in the variability of its audit outcomes, which has resulted in the value of the audit process being questioned by various stakeholders. The research endeavoured to: explore and describe the practice amongst auditors when rating audit findings; potentially identify reasons for inconsistencies amongst auditors when rating findings; and provide recommendations to improve both the consistency amongst auditors when rating audit finding and the overall performance of the audit process. An exploratory study using the Delphi technique was adopted to enable multiple iterations of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, mimicking elements of a sequential exploratory strategy.

I examine factors influencing accounting firms' and their clients' decisions to pursue an auditing vs. consulting relationship. I employ the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) prohibition on providing both services to the same clients as a natural experiment. Because Deloitte & Touche was the only Big 4 firm to retain its consulting division post-SOX, I compare Deloitte's client switch and retention decisions to those made by its direct competitors. In this context, I investigate how the decision to continue or terminate an audit relationship is influenced by auditor industry specialization, the historical provision of auditor-provided consulting services and the likelihood that the client will require consulting services in the future. I find that there is a preference for auditing when the auditor is a specialist in the client's industry, and there is a preference for consulting when the auditor provided consulting services in the past and the client is likely to require consulting services in the future. I also report empirical evidence on audit effectiveness and efficiency in cases where the auditor and its client discontinued the audit in order to maintain a consulting relationship. Although there was no impact on audit effectiveness, the auditor switches reduced efficiency as evidenced by significantly higher audit fees. This study is relevant to the current audit environment because public accounting firms that spun-off their consulting divisions around the enactment of SOX are in the process of rebuilding their consulting practices and must now choose between providing audit and consulting services to their clients. It may also be pertinent to European policy makers who are currently considering a proposal to limit auditors' ability to jointly offer audit and consulting services to the same client.

Hong Kong's aging population has, increased demand for vascular services. Currently, vascular surgery is subsumed under general surgery. The workload on both general surgery and vascular surgery is demanding and hence, not conductive to the development of vascular surgery. The volume of surgery, particularly emergency surgery provided by the Hospital Authority units varies significantly. The collaboration and differentiation of labor at present is not well defined in many centers. This may lead to unnecessary competition and duplication of resources in the long run. This project examined if there is room for improvement in the present situation and provides evidence for relevant service reconfiguration and discusses how Hong Kong can learn from some overseas examples to enhance quality of services delivered to patients.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Public Health<br>Master<br>Master of Public Health

Le réseau mobile est un réseau hybride avec une partie d’accès radio et le réseau central de liaison fixe. Les algorithmes de contrôle de congestion (CCA) conçus pour un type de système spécifique peuvent ne pas fonctionner aussi bien dans l’autre type de réseau, en particulier le réseau avec un dispositif de fonctionnalité hybride comme le réseau de périphérie mobile. Généralement, le goulot d’étranglement dans un réseau mobile est la partie accès radio. Cependant, ce n’est pas toujours le cas puisque plusieurs stations de base radio ou passerelle de réseau de livraison de paquets peuvent partager le même goulot d’étranglement dans le backhaul de livraison de paquets. Dans cette thèse, nous partons d’une méthode cross-layer et abordons le problème avec une solution omniprésente. Le premier algorithme que nous avons analysé est appelé CQIC, qui implique la couche PHY de l’UE dans la conception du contrôle de la congestion. Une amélioration du scénario 3G CQIC au scénario LTE est proposée sous le nom de DCIC. Cet algorithme utilise l’indicateur de commande de liaison descendante (DCI) au lieu de l’indicateur de qualité de canal (CQI) pour économiser la puissance de calcul sur l’UE et prendre en compte le résultat de la planification d’eNB. En outre, nous avons évalué l’algorithme BBR actuel, qui se concentre sur le réseau du centre de données, dans le scénario mobile. La plupart des CCA conventionnels ne prennent pas en compte la dégradation du BW de liaison montante et les autres caractéristiques du système cellulaire dans sa méthode d’estimation de la largeur de bande. Sur la base de cet examen, nous avons proposé les cinq objectifs de compromis pour guider la conception de l’ACC dans un type de réseau hybride mobile: utilisation de la bande passante, délai (où la perte est l’expression extrême du retard), équité, simplicité et généricité. Sur la base des compromis et des objectifs, nous avons proposé le CDBE, une estimation de la bande passante pilotée par le client TCP (CDBE) et une boucle de rétroaction de rapport. La méthode d’estimation BW côté client ne prend que peu de capacité de calcul dans la deuxième version, par rapport à la première version ou CQIC et DCIC. Coopérer avec la transition d’état côté serveur améliorée CDBE peut atteindre une part équitable de BW dans le réseau central `a paquets fixes ou le réseau mobile avec un coût de RTT inférieur à celui des CCA conventionnels. Aucune unité / application de boîtier de médiation ou de périphérie n’est requise dans l’architecture CDBE<br>The mobile network is a hybrid network with Radio Access part and the fixed backhaul core network. The congestion control algorithms(CCA) designed for a specific type of system may not work as well in the other kind of network, especially the network with hybrid feature device like the mobile edge network. Generally, the bottleneck in a mobile network is the Radio access part. However, this is not always the case since multiple radio base stations or packet delivery network gateway can be sharing the same bottleneck in the packet delivery backhaul. In this thesis, we start from a cross-layer method and address the issue with a ubiquitous solution. The first algorithm we analysed is called CQIC, which get the PHY layer of UE involved in the congestion control design. An improvement from 3G CQIC to LTE scenario is proposed named DCIC. This algorithm uses the Downlink Control Indicator(DCI) instead of Channel Quality Indicator(CQI) to save the computation power on UE and take the scheduling result of eNB into consideration. Further, we evaluated current BBR algorithm, which focuses on the data centre network, in the mobile scenario. Most conventional CCA does not take the uplink BW degradation and other features in the cellular system into consideration in its bandwidth estimation method. Based on the review, we proposed the five tradeoff objectives to guide the CCA design in a mobile hybrid type of network: Bandwidth Utilisation, Delay (where loss is the extreme expression of delay), Fairness, Simplicity and Genericity. Based on the tradeoffs and goals, we proposed CDBE, a TCP clientside driven bandwidth estimation(CDBE) and report feedback loop. The client-side BW estimation method takes only little computation capability in the second version, compared to its first version and the DCIC. Cooperate with the enhanced server-side state transition CDBE can achieve a fair share of BW in both fixed packet core network or mobile network with a lower cost of RTT compared to conventional CCAs. No extra middlebox or edge computing unit/applications is required in CDBE architecture

<p> This study uses an institutional theory perspective to examine whether significant changes to the audit work and engagement practices required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) lead to improved audit quality in nonprofit hospitals. Unlike their for-profit counterparts, nonprofit organizations have been subject to audits of internal controls over financial reporting and program compliance for decades under Circular A-133 of the Single Audit Act of 1984, as amended. Circular A-133 audits represent the primary accountability tool over the billions of grant dollars awarded annually by the federal government. Despite the enormity of these awards and the substantial informational effect of the audit reports, prior empirical research suggests that the quality of these audits is problematic. </p><p> Using the archival data of nonprofit hospital Circular A-133 audits and related hand-collected financial data from IRS Form 990s, bivariate and multivariate analyses are conducted on a cross-sectional sample of 875 audits for 141 nonprofit hospitals with audits during both pre-SOX (2001-2004) and post-SOX (2008-2011) periods. Audit quality is inferred from discretionary accruals (Modified Jones model) and auditor-reported internal control deficiencies (reportable conditions and material weaknesses). </p><p> The results indicate support for improved audit quality from the pre- to the post-SOX period for all measures of audit quality. The results are different for the measures of audit quality used to examine the association between audit firm size and audit quality. Non-Big 4 audit firms experienced a significant improvement in audit quality when discretionary accruals are used as a proxy for audit quality. Conversely, Big 4 audit firms experienced a significant improvement in audit quality when internal control deficiencies are proxies for audit quality. In the post-SOX period audit firms provide approximately the same level of audit quality regardless of firm size when discretionary accruals or material weaknesses are the proxy for audit quality. When reportable conditions are the proxy, non-Big 4 firms have higher audit quality than Big 4 firms post-SOX. Client characteristics, specifically hospital size and the interaction of leverage and risk, are attributable to differences in post-SOX audit quality. Finally, the study fails to support the hypothesis that large audit firms self-select low risk clients.</p>

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis briefly explores the quality phenomenon in higher education and more specifically in the university context. In addition, the experiences of stakeholders who participated in the first institutional quality audit at a merged university are explored and analysed. It is also argued that the world-wide quality phenomenon at universities, although sometimes politically driven and at times undertaken with hidden agendas, may eventually add value to a university‟ cycle of never-ending quality improvement and enhancement. University stakeholders who are either directly or indirectly involved in realising the university‟s vision and mission can provide invaluable feedback about their experience of a quality audit. Feedback by all stakeholders about a quality audit will assist the university to plan and prepare for the next cycle of quality audits. The research findings of this study indicated that a variety of differences exist in the perceptions of stakeholders that participated in the preparation and execution of the institutional quality audit. In some cases the differences may hold some limited risk for the university therefore some recommendations are also made in support of future audits. These and other recommendations emenating from the research findings will hopefully also contribute towards improved engagement between the stakeholders and members of the audit panel.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek kortliks die verskynsel van gehalte in hoër onderwys, en meer spesifiek in die universiteitskonteks. Voorts word die ervarings van belanghebbendes wat deelgeneem het aan die eerste institusionele kwaliteitsoudit aan ʼn saamgesmelte universiteit, ondersoek en ontleed. Daar word ook aangevoer dat die wêreldwye verskynsel van kwaliteit aan universiteite uiteindelik waarde kan toevoeg tot ʼn universiteit se siklus van ewigdurende kwaliteitsversekering en –verbetering, selfs al is hierdie verskynsel soms polities gedrewe en al gaan dit by tye gepaard met verskuilde agendas. Belanghebbendes van die universiteit wat direk of indirek betrokke is by die realisering van die universiteit se visie en missie kan uiters waardevolle terugvoer bied oor hulle ervaring van ʼn kwaliteitsoudit. Terugvoer deur alle belanghebbendes oor ʼn kwaliteitsoudit sal die universiteit help om vir die volgende siklus kwaliteitsoudits te beplan en voor te berei. Die navorsingsbevindings van hierdie studie dui daarop dat ʼn verskeidenheid verskille wel bestaan in die persepsies van belanghebbendes wat deelgeneem het aan die voorbereiding en uitvoering van die institusionele kwaliteitsoudit. In sommige gevalle hou die verskille wel ʼn beperkte risiko vir die universiteit in en daarom word aanbevelings gemaak ter ondersteuning van toekomstige kwaliteitsoudits. Hierdie, sowel as ander aanbevelings sal hopelik ook bydra tot verbeterde interaksie tussen die belanghebbendes en lede van die ouditpaneel.

A mesura que Internet i les xarxes IP s'han anat integrant dins la societat i les corporacions, han anat creixent les expectatives de nous serveis convergents així com les expectatives de qualitat en les comunicacions. Les Next Generation Networks (NGN) donen resposta a les noves necessitats i representen el nou paradigma d'Internet a partir de la convergència IP. Un dels aspectes menys desenvolupats de les NGN és el control de la Qualitat del Servei (QoS), especialment crític en les comunicacions multimèdia a través de xarxes heterogènies i/o de diferents operadors. A més a més, les NGN incorporen nativament el protocol IPv6 que, malgrat les deficiències i esgotament d'adreces IPv4, encara no ha tingut l'impuls definitiu.<br/>Aquesta tesi està enfocada des d'un punt de vista pràctic. Així doncs, per tal de poder fer recerca sobre xarxes de proves (o testbeds) que suportin IPv6 amb garanties de funcionament, es fa un estudi en profunditat del protocol IPv6, del seu grau d'implementació i dels tests de conformància i interoperabilitat existents que avaluen la qualitat d'aquestes implementacions. A continuació s'avalua la qualitat de cinc sistemes operatius que suporten IPv6 mitjançant un test de conformància i s'implementa el testbed IPv6 bàsic, a partir del qual es farà la recerca, amb la implementació que ofereix més garanties.<br/>El QoS Broker és l'aportació principal d'aquesta tesi: un marc integrat que inclou un sistema automatitzat per gestionar el control de la QoS a través de sistemes multi-domini/multi-operador seguint les recomanacions de les NGN. El sistema automatitza els mecanismes associats a la configuració de la QoS dins d'un mateix domini (sistema autònom) mitjançant la gestió basada en polítiques de QoS i automatitza la negociació dinàmica de QoS entre QoS Brokers de diferents dominis, de forma que permet garantir QoS extrem-extrem sense fissures. Aquesta arquitectura es valida sobre un testbed de proves multi-domini que utilitza el mecanisme DiffServ de QoS i suporta IPv6.<br/>L'arquitectura definida en les NGN permet gestionar la QoS tant a nivell 3 (IP) com a nivell 2 (Ethernet, WiFi, etc.) de forma que permet gestionar també xarxes PLC. Aquesta tesi proposa una aproximació teòrica per aplicar aquesta arquitectura de control, mitjançant un QoS Broker, a les noves xarxes PLC que s'estan acabant d'estandarditzar, i discuteix les possibilitats d'aplicació sobre les futures xarxes de comunicació de les Smart Grids.<br/>Finalment, s'integra en el QoS Broker un mòdul per gestionar l'enginyeria del tràfic optimitzant els dominis mitjançant tècniques de intel·ligència artificial. La validació en simulacions i sobre un testbed amb routers Cisco demostra que els algorismes genètics híbrids són una opció eficaç en aquest camp.<br/>En general, les observacions i avenços assolits en aquesta tesi contribueixen a augmentar la comprensió del funcionament de la QoS en les NGN i a preparar aquests sistemes per afrontar problemes del món real de gran complexitat.<br>A medida que Internet y las redes IP se han ido integrando dentro de la sociedad y las corporaciones, han ido creciendo las expectativas de nuevos servicios convergentes así como las expectativas de calidad en las comunicaciones. Las Next Generation Networks (NGN) dan respuesta a las nuevas necesidades y representan el nuevo paradigma de Internet a partir de la convergencia IP. Uno de los aspectos menos desarrollados de las NGN es el control de la Calidad del Servicio (QoS), especialmente crítico en las comunicaciones multimedia a través de redes heterogéneas y/o de diferentes operadores. Además, las NGN incorporan nativamente el protocolo IPv6 que, a pesar de las deficiencias y agotamiento de direcciones IPv4, aún no ha tenido el impulso definitivo.<br/>Esta tesis está enfocada desde un punto de vista práctico. Así pues, con tal de poder hacer investigación sobre redes de prueba (o testbeds) que suporten IPv6 con garantías de funcionamiento, se hace un estudio en profundidad del protocolo IPv6, de su grado de implementación y de los tests de conformancia e interoperabilidad existentes que evalúan la calidad de estas implementaciones. A continuación se evalua la calidad de cinco sistemas operativos que soportan IPv6 mediante un test de conformancia y se implementa el testbed IPv6 básico, a partir del cual se realizará la investigación, con la implementación que ofrece más garantías.<br/>El QoS Broker es la aportación principal de esta tesis: un marco integrado que incluye un sistema automatitzado para gestionar el control de la QoS a través de sistemas multi-dominio/multi-operador siguiendo las recomendaciones de las NGN. El sistema automatiza los mecanismos asociados a la configuración de la QoS dentro de un mismo dominio (sistema autónomo) mediante la gestión basada en políticas de QoS y automatiza la negociación dinámica de QoS entre QoS brokers de diferentes dominios, de forma que permite garantizar QoS extremo-extremo sin fisuras. Esta arquitectura se valida sobre un testbed de pruebas multi-dominio que utiliza el mecanismo DiffServ de QoS y soporta IPv6. <br/>La arquitectura definida en las NGN permite gestionar la QoS tanto a nivel 3 (IP) o como a nivel 2 (Ethernet, WiFi, etc.) de forma que permite gestionar también redes PLC. Esta tesis propone una aproximación teórica para aplicar esta arquitectura de control, mediante un QoS Broker, a las noves redes PLC que se están acabando de estandardizar, y discute las posibilidades de aplicación sobre las futuras redes de comunicación de las Smart Grids.<br/>Finalmente, se integra en el QoS Broker un módulo para gestionar la ingeniería del tráfico optimizando los dominios mediante técnicas de inteligencia artificial. La validación en simulaciones y sobre un testbed con routers Cisco demuestra que los algoritmos genéticos híbridos son una opción eficaz en este campo.<br/>En general, las observaciones y avances i avances alcanzados en esta tesis contribuyen a augmentar la comprensión del funcionamiento de la QoS en las NGN y en preparar estos sistemas para afrontar problemas del mundo real de gran complejidad.<br>The steady growth of Internet along with the IP networks and their integration into society and corporations has brought with it increased expectations of new converged services as well as greater demands on quality in communications. The Next Generation Networks (NGNs) respond to these new needs and represent the new Internet paradigm from the IP convergence. One of the least developed aspects in the NGNs is the Quality of Service (QoS) control, which is especially critical in the multimedia communication through heterogeneous networks and/or different operators. Furthermore, the NGNs natively incorporate the IPv6 protocol which, despite its shortcomings and the depletion of IPv4 addresses has not been boosted yet.<br/>This thesis has been developed with a practical focus. Therefore, with the aim of carrying out research over testbeds supporting the IPv6 with performance guarantees, an in-depth study of the IPv6 protocol development has been conducted and its degree of implementation and the existing conformance and interoperability tests that evaluate these implementations have been studied. Next, the quality of five implementations has been evaluated through a conformance test and the basic IPv6 testbed has been implemented, from which the research will be carried out. <br/>The QoS Broker is the main contribution to this thesis: an integrated framework including an automated system for QoS control management through multi-domain/multi-operator systems according to NGN recommendations. The system automates the mechanisms associated to the QoS configuration inside the same domain (autonomous system) through policy-based management and automates the QoS dynamic negotiation between peer QoS Brokers belonging to different domains, so it allows the guarantee of seamless end-to-end QoS. This architecture is validated over a multi-domain testbed which uses the QoS DiffServ mechanism and supports IPv6.<br/>The architecture defined in the NGN allows QoS management at level 3 (IP) as well as at level 2 (e.g. Ethernet, WiFi) so it also facilitates the management of PLC networks. Through the use of a QoS Broker, this thesis proposes a theoretical approach for applying this control architecture to the newly standardized PLC networks, and discusses the possibilities of applying it over the future communication networks of the Smart Grids.<br/>Finally, a module for managing traffic engineering which optimizes the network domains through artificial intelligence techniques is integrated in the QoS Broker. The validations by simulations and over a Cisco router testbed demonstrate that hybrid genetic algorithms are an effective option in this area.<br/>Overall, the advances and key insights provided in this thesis help advance our understanding of QoS functioning in the NGNs and prepare these systems to face increasingly complex problems, which abound in current industrial and scientific applications.

In response to the spectacular financial reporting failures in Western economies in the early 21st century, the UK has undergone a series of regulatory reforms and the Ethical Standards (ES) by the Auditing Practices Board (APB) are among the most prominent. While the issues of joint provision of audit and non-audit services (NAS) and long audit firm tenure died down following the enactment of ES in 2004, they attracted comments from regulators and policymakers in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis. This makes such joint provision and extended tenure long-standing, potentially unresolved issues even in a changed regulatory setting. In this context, the current study has been motivated to investigate the impact of NAS and audit firm tenure regulations on de facto auditor independence and financial reporting quality (FRQ) of FTSE350 companies. Using estimates of discretionary accruals and measures for auditors‟ economic dependence, the study finds little support against popular arguments that NAS fees and long audit firm tenure erode FRQ. Out of two measures of auditors‟ economic dependence, „total fees to auditors‟ is documented to be significantly negatively associated with discretionary accruals during the post-APB ES period. The „differencein- differences‟ method provides some evidence at a marginally significant level for ES‟s causal impact in improving FRQ during post-APB ES period, ceteris paribus. Tests of association between audit firm tenure and FRQ suggest, with a caveat of marginally significant results, that audits conducted during the post-APB ES period have a mitigating effect on discretionary accruals and that longer audit firm tenure does not compromise auditor independence but in fact helps to improve FRQ in the form of lower discretionary accruals. These empirical findings have weak support for policymakers‟ views that an outright prohibition on supplying NAS for audit clients and mandating more frequent rotation of auditors would help to improve FRQ. Results from the final set of tests suggest a marginally significant negative association between audit firm tenure and discretionary accruals for companies audited by Big4 auditors but not for those audited by their non-Big4 counterparts. This provides insight to the most recent regulatory concerns about the concentrated audit market with Big4 domination. The study, therefore, makes important empirical contributions with policy implications.

Health service organizations are increasingly required to deliver quality healthcare services without increasing costs. The adoption of health information technologies can assist these organizations to deliver a quality service; however, this again exposes the health information to threats. The protection of personal health information is critical to ensure the privacy of patients in the care of health service organizations. Therefore both quality and information security are of importance in healthcare. Organisations commonly use management system standards to assist them to improve a particular function (e.g. quality or security) through structured organizational processes to establish, maintain and optimise a management system for the particular function. In the healthcare sector, the ISO 9001, ISO 9004 and IWA 1 standards may be used for the purpose of improving quality management through the establishment of a quality management system. Similarly, the ISO 27001 and ISO 27799 standards may be used to improve information security management through the establishment of an information security management system. However, the concurrent implementation of multiple standards brings confusion and complexity within organisations. A possible solution to the confusion is to introduce an integrated management system that addresses the requirements of multiple management systems. In this research, various standards relevant to the establishment of management systems for quality and security are studied. Additionally, literature on integrated management systems is reviewed to determine a possible approach to establishing an IMS for quality and information security in healthcare. It will be shown that the quality management and information security management standards contain commonalities that an integration approach can be based on. A detailed investigation of these commonalities is done in order to present the final proposal of the IMSQS, the Integrated Management System for Quality and Information Security in healthcare.

Thesis (MCur)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Background: In her clinical practice as nursing manager the researcher was concerned about incomplete and inaccurate documentation of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) which were compromising the management of these patients. The primary care nurses endorsed these concerns. Goals and Objective: The goal of this study was to audit nursing documentation according to the phases of the nursing process and the discharge planning of patients diagnosed with TB discharged from TB hospitals in the Western Cape. The objectives for the study were to determine whether the patients were adequately assessed and diagnosed, whether nursing care plans were formulated based on the assessment and whether they were implemented and evaluated according to the nursing process - including the discharged planning. Ethics approval was obtained from the Committee of Human Research Science at Stellenbosch University and permission was also obtained from the respective institutions. Methodology: A descriptive design with a quantitative approach was applied for the purpose of this study. The total population for the study was N=1768. A systematic random sample of 12% from each hospital was drawn: n=214, hospital A (n=142) and hospital B (n=72). Criteria included:  all adult patients older than 18 years  patients who were discharged between 01 January 2007 and 31st December 2007  all discharged patients from the two hospitals specializing in patients diagnosed with TB. Instrumentation: An audit instrument based on the objectives of the study was approved as the data collection tool. Guided by the proposed study a 10% (n=21) of the number of discharged patient files were drawn for the purpose of a pilot study. Reliability and validity was ensured through the use of experts in the field of nursing, research methodology and statistics. A pilot study was also conducted to support the reliability and validity of the study. Data collection: The researcher collected the data personally with the support of five trained field workers who only assisted at hospital B and was reluctant to assist at the second hospital. Data analysis: Data was analysed with the support of a statistician and expressed in frequencies and tables. Results: All phases of the nursing process showed a low compliance. Results showed that only n=90(42%) of the registered professional nurses checked and signed the initial assessment, furthermore only n=53(34%) showed that a recording was made of all referral documentation to the patient’s follow-up clinic. Recommendations: Recommendations based on the scientific evidence obtained from the study include the implementation of a quality assurance programme namely standardisation, auditing, case management of patients, education and training, rewarding of staff and further research. Conclusion: In conclusion guided by the research question “Are the audited discharged patient files at hospitals specialising in the management of patients with TB in the WCDoH compliant?” The researcher concludes that the discharged patient files are not compliant.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Agtergrond: In haar kliniese praktyk as verpleegbestuurder is die navorser besorgd oor die onvolledige en onakkurate dokumentasie van pasiënte wat met tuberkulose (TB) gediagnoseer is en wat dus die versorging van hierdie pasiënte in gevaar stel. Hierdie besorgdhede is deur die primêre sorg verpleegsters bevestig. Doel en Doelwitte: Die doel van die studie is om die verpleegdokumente te ouditeer volgens die fases van die vepleegproses, asook die ontslagbeplanning van die pasiënte gediagnoseer met TB van die hospitale in die Wes-Kaap. Die doelwitte is om te bepaal of die pasiënte korrek geassesseer en gediagnoseer is en of verpleegsorgplanne opgestel is, wat gebaseer is op die assessering en versorgingsplanne wat geïmplementeer en geëvalueer is volgens die verpleegproses, insluitende die ontslagbeplanning. Etiese goedgekeuring is toegestaan deur die Komitee vir Menslike Navorsingswetenskap van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch en toestemming is ook ontvang van die onderskeie instansies. Metodologie: ’n Beskrywende ontwerp met ’n kwantitatiewe benadering is toegepas vir die doel van die studie. Die totale bevolking vir die studie is N=1786. ’n Sistematiese ewekansige geselekteerde steekproef van 12% van elke hospitaal is geneem: n=214, hospitaal A (n=142) en hospitaal B (n=72). Die kriteria sluit in:  alle volwasse pasiënte ouer as 18 jaar  pasiënte wat gedurende die periode 01 Januarie 2007 tot 31 Desember 2007 ontslaan is  alle ontslag pasiënte van die twee hospitale wat spesialiseer in pasiënte wat gediagnoseer is met TB. Instrumentasie: ‘n Ouditinstrument gebaseer op die doelwitte is goedgekeur as die dataversamelingsinstrument. Na aanleiding van die voorgestelde studie is 10% (n=21) van die aantal ontslag pasiëntlêers getrek vir die doel van die loodsondersoek. Betroubaarheid en geldigheid is verseker deur gebruik te maak van deskundiges in die verplegingsveld, die navorsingsmetodologie en statistiek. Die loodsondersoek is ook uitgevoer om die betroubaarhied en geldigheid van die studie te rugsteun. Dataversameling: Die navorser het die data persoonlik gekollekteer met die bystand van vyf opgeleide veldwerkers wat slegs hulp verleen het by hospital B en wat teësinnig was om hulp te verleen by die tweede hospitaal. Data-analise: Data is geanaliseer met die hulp van ’n statistikus en is uitgedruk in frekwensies en tabelle. Resultate: Alle fases van die verpleegproses het nie voldoen aan die vereistes nie. Resultate dui daarop dat slegs n=90 (42%) van die geregistreerde professionele verpleegsters die aanvanklike assessering nagegaan en onderteken het, vervolgens het slegs n=53 (34%) getoon dat ’n opname gemaak was van alle verwysde dokumentasie van die pasiënt se opvolgbesoek aan die kliniek. Aanbevelings: Aanbevelings is gebaseer op die wetenskaplike bewys wat verkry is van die studie vir die implementering van ’n gehalte versekeringsprogram, naamlik standardisering, ouditering, gevallebestuur van pasiente, opvoeding en opleiding, erkenning aan die personeel, en voortgesette navorsing. Samevatting: Ter afsluiting gelei deur die navorsering’s vraag nl. “Is die geouditeerde verpleegdokumente in hospitale wat spesialiseer in die bestuur van pasiente gediagnoseer met TB in die Weskaap se Department van Gesondheid bygehou?” Die navorser bevestig dat die verpleegdokumente nie bygehou was nie.

This dissertation is based on the assumption that the Port Elizabeth Municipality should deliver essential services effectively, efficiently and economically so as to attain excellence in service delivery. The essential services dealt with in this study are electricity; refuse collection; sewerage; and water services. Attaining excellence in service delivery will lead the Port Elizabeth Municipality to improve and sustain the quality of life of the local inhabitants. The primary objectives of this dissertation include, inter alia: An historical analysis of delivery systems of the former government prior to 1994, which provides the primary reasons and purposes of delivery systems, and the effects on the Port Elizabeth Municipality. Reformation and transformation of South African local government since 1994, with particular reference to the Port Elizabeth Municipality. A normative model for service delivery, which is designed to accelerate service delivery in the local spheres of government, with special reference to the Port Elizabeth Municipality as the locus of this study. The nature, extent and evaluation of the existing service delivery by the Port Elizabeth Municipality from 1994 to 1999. An empirical survey is conducted in the form of questionnaires to the directors, heads of departments, senior managers, as well as councillors. Approaches and strategies for attaining excellence in service delivery, which include, inter alia: a government-business paradigm and an equilibrium approach. Lastly, a number of recommendations are made and conclusions are drawn based on the findings of the empirical survey in order to deliver essential services equitably, efficiently, effectively and economically to attain excellence in service delivery in the Port Elizabeth Municipality.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how auditors are affected by quality controls and if audit practice changes because of quality controls. To fulfill the purpose of this study there has been interviews made with five auditors. The conclusion by this study is that the interviewed auditors work practices are affected by quality controls and that the extent and effect depends on the auditor and the office that the auditor works in. The auditors who worked as quality reviewers at the agencies where they are employed at, we felt that they were more secured in the response towards quality controls. This may be because they are quality reviewers themselves and they know what the quality control requires and what must be met to be approved. One of the key elements of a quality control is feedback and suggestions for improving the next audit. This seems to be appreciated by all auditors and an important tool to help the auditors evolve in the profession. The majority of the auditors believe that mandatory education is one of the most important steps into keeping themselves updated on new standards. To summarize the result of the study we conclude that quality controls can affect the audit practice, but this comes to expression in different ways depending on the auditors experiences of quality control and what agency the auditor work in.

Lean philosophy is based on the continuous quest to improve the organisation‟s processes by creating a culture and operating principles which eliminate all non value adding activities within organisation„s processes. Manufacturing firms consider the adoption of the Lean tools as basic requirements for achieving World Class operational excellence or Best Practice. For some time, lean has been used by the manufacturing organizations. Most organizations understand that lean will help them survive global competition and stay in business. The objective of this study is to investigate how lean manufacturing tools can be used to improve efficiency and enhance the embedding of a continuous improvement culture in the South African Revenue Service Enforcement Audit Port Elizabeth. The activities that took place in Enforcement Audit Port Elizabeth from September 2010 until 31 October 2011 were observed. During the study, an introductory presentation by the researcher was made to Regional Enforcement Management and staff in general, the presentation was to introduce the study highlighting different Lean tools. Thereafter the Port Elizabeth audit staff members were engaged formally, using surveys to assess their underlying mindset and behaviour as well as informally, using unstructured interviews to solicit more information on activities taking place and the reasoning behind certain actions. The results of the survey and observations are analysed and interpreted.

This work is concerned with physics-aspects of safety, quality control (QC) and dosimetry audit in high dose rate (HDR) gynaecological brachytherapy. A survey of brachytherapy QC practice across the UK was conducted. Areas of least consistency were addressed, including test method development and establishment of clinical performance requirements. ‘End to end’ dosimetry auditing was not being utilised and its implementation was the main focus of this work. Three candidate dosimeters were evaluated for use in audit: Fibre optic thermoluminescence detector, Gafchromic EBT3® radiochromic film, and Presage® radiochromic plastic. Film dosimetry was selected, fully characterised, triple-channel dosimetry evaluated, and uncertainty reduction methods implemented. A novel ‘end to end’ audit methodology was developed, the BRachytherapy Applicator Dosimetry (BRAD) system, to measure dose distributions around clinical brachytherapy applicators and compare to treatment planning system calculations. MCNP5 Monte Carlo code was used to support the design of the BRAD system and validate the use of film dosimetry. 46 radiotherapy centres in the UK were audited. Delivery of the intended prescription dose was confirmed to be within clinically acceptable levels at all centres, mean difference 0.6% for plastic and 3.0% for metal applicators (±3.0% k=1). The intended dose distribution was faithfully delivered to the film-measured dose planes with a mean gamma passing rate of 97.8% at 3% (local) 2 mm criteria. Two audits had results that required follow-up and both were resolved. Each audit included a review of local brachytherapy physics practice and opportunities for improvement were reported, including imaging, applicator reconstruction, planning procedures, QC tests, and staff training. The brachytherapy audit provided the first comprehensive validation of ‘end to end’ clinical brachytherapy dosimetry, from applicator imaging to treatment delivery, combined with a review of clinical physics practice. The BRAD system is retained in the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) phantom library.

Thesis (MTech (Marketing))--Cape Technikon, 1999.<br>Quality of service, as perceived by the customer, has been shown by research to be a critical factor contributing to organizational performance in recent years. Therefore, the management of service quality is a key variable, and for service quality to be managed, it has to be measured. There have been significant advances in the measurement of service quality in the past fifteen years, resulting in a stream of research, mostly concentrating on the external customers of profit-seeking firms. A key factor driving this research was the development of an apparently reliable, valid instrument for the measurement of service quality. This instrument called SERVQUAL, was developed by US researchers A. "Parsu" Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and Len Berry. It has spawned an enormous debate in the marketing literature, leading to the further exploration and refinement of the dimensions of the service quality construct. While the use of SERVQUAL has been extensively investigated in external markets, and in for-profit firms, less attention has been given to its use, and more importantly, its reliability and validity in internal markets, and in not-for-profit organizations. These settings are becoming increasingly important from a services marketing perspective. Internal markets (where fellow employees are also customers) are being subjected to market testing, and many services previously provided within the organization are being outsourced. In order to survive, many functions such as information systems, training, catering and cleaning are being forced to market their services internally, and this includes assessing service quality, and improving it. Likewise, private and public nonprofit organizations are coming under increasing scrutiny, as donors and taxpayers alike become evermore concerned about the value gained from the expenditures made by these organizations with their funds. In this study, the SERVQUAL instrument was used to measure service quality as perceived by the internal customers of a large IT department within an extensive government organization. The main objectives of the study were to assess the psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL instrument in this setting. It was found that SERVQUAL generally performs well under these circumstances, with regard to reliability, construct, convergent and nomological validity. However, the instrument appears to be problematical in terms of discriminant validity. This is probably less attributable to the measurement situation as to the instrument itself, for the finding mirrors evidence from the literature. The study also identifies implications for management, and opportunities for future research.

Notre recherche vise à décrire les liens entre l’appropriation des IFRS et les dimensions organisationnelles et managériales des services comptables. Nous avons situé ces deux axes dans l’activité productive des acteurs en mobilisant la théorie socio-économique et la théorie d’agence, afin d’ancrer les IFRS dans le comportement des acteurs et dans l’organisation des entités. A partir d’une recherche-action inscrite dans nos activités d’expert-comptable et de commissaire aux comptes, nous avons identifié trois principes directeurs de réorganisation des activités comptables : ajustement, traitement et distanciation. En associant ces principes aux opérations de la chaîne comptable, nous avons mis en évidence trois niveaux de configuration organisationnelle : organisation ad’hoc, prégnance de la fonction comptable, fonction décentralisée. Dans les deux premiers niveaux, la présence d’une relation de collaboration entre acteurs a pu être observée, alors qu’elle est pratiquement inexistante au niveau de la fonction décentralisée<br>The aim of our research is to describe the links between IFRS appropriation and the organization and management structures of the accounting departments. We positioned these two axes within the productive activities of stakeholders thanks to the use of both Socio-Economic and Agency Theories in order to connect IFRS with the stakeholders behaviors and with the organizations of firms.Through action research by virtue of our Chartered Accountant and Statutory Auditor positions we isolated three guidelines of accounting practices reorganizations: Adjustment, Treatment, and Distance analysis. The combination of these guidelines with the accounting process led us to emphasize three levels of organizational structures: Ad hoc Organization, Accounting Prevalence structure, and Decentralized Administration. In the two first organization levels a cooperation behavior has been observed between stakeholders, whereas in the Decentralized structure practically no collaboration has been recorded

In Hong Kong, the responsibility for building management falls on property owners. To assist in building management, most property owners would appoint a property management company. Fulfilling relevant statutory requirements is mandatory for property management companies; however, it is debatable if meeting the basic statutory requirements is equivalent to providing quality property management services for property owners. In fact, property owners usually have more requests than minimum statutory requirements and it is therefore a multi-factor evaluation system for quality of residential property management services is proposed in this research project. To develop the assessment system, quality property management services criteria, including dimensions and performance items, are identified through desk research and focus group interviews with owners’ representatives and property management practitioners. Interval score and ranking are then assigned to the identified assessment criteria by distributing questionnaires with pilot test to owners’ representatives, property management practitioners and building management team of Home Affairs Department of HKSAR. Data collected from the questionnaire are analyzed with weight assessment method: Reliability Interval Method (RIM) in which importance weightings of the criteria can be developed and statistical analysis is allowed. “Repair and Maintenance (excluding clubhouse facilities, if applicable)” and “Effectiveness of emergency repair and maintenance services”, which are not statutory requirements for managing residential properties, are respectively weighted as the most important dimension and performance item. As far as application of the developed quality assessment system is concerned, services quality provided by major property management companies are measured and compared with questionnaires to students pursuing Housing Management in University of Hong Kong. The correlation between quality of property management services and numbers of properties managed by the company is not statistically significant; however, this is likely due to a small samples size, as the visual display of data suggests a relationship. One interesting finding in this research is the high factor weight of assessment criteria which are not statutory requirements for managing residential properties. Such a result implies that meeting basic statutory requirements is not equivalent to providing quality property management services in the eyes of property owners. Besides, this research provides a framework for future development of a classification system to indicate how good a property is for meeting specific overall grading. This research is important because quality of property management services in residential properties can be quantified and closely monitored with the developed quality assessment system in a performance-based, simple and standard way from the perspective of property owners. As far as the benefits of property management companies, which sell services in keen market, are concerned, it is expected that the system could keep supervising and thus improving the quality of services; delivery of high quality services is a profitable way to differentiate ones from the competitors.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Housing Management<br>Master<br>Master of Housing Management

The two objectives of this thesis are to investigate the magnitude of compliance with AASB 6 Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources and AASB 136 Impairment of Assets; and to examine the influence of audit quality on the compliance levels utilising data from 305 Australian mineral resources public listed firms. Consistent with agency theory auditor independence and audit specialisation are considered pivotal determinants of the magnitude of a disclosure compliance index that comprises 62 mandatory disclosure items.Findings reveal there is 76% compliance rate with both AASB 6 and AASB136 by Australian mineral resource listed firms. The average fees paid to the incumbent auditors for non-audit services is AUD $74,183. The ratio of non-audit fees to total fees earned by Australian accounting firms is 26% whilst 53% of the firms engage the services of a specialist auditor.OLS regression analysis reveals a statistically significant negative association between the ratio of non-audit fees to total fees and level of compliance. This suggests that in the Australian mineral resources sector context, large non-audit fees paid to the incumbent auditors seem to influence the auditor‘s independence. Yet, this thesis does not find any evidence that firms that employ services from a specialist auditor result in a higher level of compliance. Additional sensitivity analyses indicate that the results are generally robust across alternative measures.These findings have important implication for accounting bodies, regulators, investors and other interested parties. Based on the findings, regulators could either: (1) do nothing, and allow the market to assess the risk imposed of the non-disclosure made by firms and take necessary action to reflect on the firms‘ market share prices (though such a option is unlikely given tenets of regulation theory); (2) enforce and penalize any non-compliance with the mandatory disclosures via tougher regulations; or (3) indirectly improve the level of compliance by means of auditor independence. The results show auditor independence (i.e., non-audit fees) is significantly associated with magnitude of compliance; regulators could regulate these non-audit services to boost the magnitude of compliance.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Competition in the long-term insurance industry is intense and is increasing. This market is highly sophisticated and competitive and has developed substantially over the last few years with increasing integration into the world economy. Many companies have come to a crossroad as far as expansion of their market share is concerned. They have to operate in this highly competitive market and are under increasing pressure from legislation. New customers are in a short supply and competition is fierce. These facts are forcing companies to look at alternative ways of increasing their market share, especially through projects that try to maximise the value of existing clients. This paper looks intrinsically at information quality and how it coincides with customer relationship management projects for it to be effective and to give companies a competitive advantage. Through qualitative exploratory methods I was able to get a clear picture of how one of South Africa's biggest insurance companies tries to increase its market share in such a saturated market using information about their customers to gain competitive advantage. I first develop a thorough theoretical background on the terrain of information quality and how it relates to customer information management, which in turn has a great impact and forms the foundation of customer relationship management. Then, I explain how the company sees customer relationship management and how customer information management and information quality playa role in this view. Finally, I look at practical examples of quality information management at work within a framework of customer relationship management.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kompetisie in die langtermyn versekerings-bedryf is intens. Die mark is hoogs gesofistikeerd en kompeterend en het substansieel ontwikkel in die afgelope paar jaar met 'n verhoogde integrasie in die wêreld-mark. Vele maatskappye bevind hulself tans by 'n kruispad- met betrekking tot die uitbreiding van hulle aandeel in die mark. Besigheid moet gedoen word in 'n baie kompeterende mark en dan is daar ook die ewig toenemende druk wat toegepas word met betrekking tot wetlikheid en konformiteit. Dit, tesame met die feit dat kliënte al hoe minder raak, dwing maatskappye om na alternatiewe maniere te kyk om verdienstes op te stoot, en spesifiek deur projekte wat probeer om die waarde van bestaande kliënte te verhoog. Die werkstuk kyk spesifiek na informasie-kwaliteit en hoe dit verband hou met kliënte verhoudingsbestuur projekte om dit effektief te maak. Daar word ook gekyk na hoe dit die maatskappy 'n kompeterende voordeel gee. Deur kwalitatiewe ondersoekende metodes kon ek 'n helder beeld kry van hoe een van Suid Afrika se versekerings-maatskappye probeer om verdienstes te verhoog in so 'n versadigde mark deur gebruik te maak van informasie oor hulle kliente om 'n kompeterende voordeel te verkry. Eerstens ontwikkel ek 'n deeglike teoretiese agtergrond oor die gebied van informasie kwaliteit, en hoe dit verband hou met kliënte informasie-bestuur, wat op sy beurt weer 'n groot impak het en die grondslag vorm van kliënte verhoudingsbestuur. Tweedens verduidelik ek hoe die maatskappy kliënte verhoudingsbestuur sien en hoe kliënte informasie bestuur en informasie-kwaliteit 'n rol speel in die siening. Laastens kyk ek na praktiese voorbeelde van kwaliteit informasie-bestuur en die impak wat dit het op kliënte verhoudingsbestuur.

The overall purpose of this research was to add to existing theory of quality pertaining to the service provider's perception of quality. Quality in the service industry is difficult to assess because of the intangible, heterogeneous and labor intensive nature of services. In addition, personnel have varying perceptions of delivered quality based on their position within the organizational hierarchy. This study enhanced the Service Quality Model developed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1988). An additional gap ("gap 6") was hypothesized and investigated. This gap describes the differences in perceived delivered quality by employees at different organizational levels (e.g., managerial, supervisory, and non-management employees) across different market segments. The researcher proposed that "gap 6" has a significant impact on total perceived delivered quality. The survey instrument addressed five dimensions of overall quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The survey was administered to employees from hotels representing three market segments located within the same metropolitan area and managed by the same company. A 3 X 3 factorial design was used with three organizational levels (managers, supervisors, and hourly employees) and three lodging market segments (luxury, business-traveller, and long-term/suite). Data analyses included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Tukey's Multiple Comparison Test.