Friday, January 24, 2020

Blanche is Responsible for her own Fate in a Street Car Named Desire Es

This essay will describe whether or not Blanches’ unfortunate eventual mental collapse was due to her being a victim of the society she went to seek comfort in, or if she was solely or at least partly responsible. The factors and issues that will be discussed include, Blanches’ deceitful behaviour and romantic delusions which may have lead to her eventual downfall, the role Stanley ended up playing with his relentless investigations of her past and the continuous revelations of it, the part society and ‘new America’ played in stifling her desires and throwing her into a world she could not relate to or abide by. Firstly, the reader may initially feel Blanche is completely responsible or at least somewhat to blame, for what becomes of her. She is very deceitful and behaves in this way throughout the play, particularly to Mitch, saying, ‘Stella is my precious little sister’ and continuously attempting to deceive Stanley, saying she ‘received a telegram from an old admirer of mine’. These are just two examples of Blanches’ trickery and lying ways. In some ways though, the reader will sense that Blanche rather than knowingly being deceitful, actually begins to believe what she says is true, and that she lives in her own dream reality, telling people ‘what ought to be the truth’ probably due to the unforgiving nature of her true life. This will make the reader begin to pity Blanche and consider whether these lies and deceits are just what she uses to comfort and protect herself. Blanche has many romantic delusions which have been plaguing her min d since the death of her husband. Though his death was not entirely her fault, her flirtatious manner is a major contributor to her downfall. She came to New Orleans as she was fired from... ...hey affect the lives of the women around them, yet somehow do not change to a great extent throughout the plays. On the other hand, both characters are comparable in that their eventual fate could be argued as being in many ways as a result of their own deeds and possibly the strains of society. In conclusion Blanche is to a degree responsible for her own downfall and mental collapse. She opts to turn to promiscuity and inebriety even going as far as to admitting to flirting with Stanley, and by the end disclosing all her tricks and deceits to him and Mitch. However, she cannot be held as responsible for the acts of her husband, Stanley and even Stella and the social circumstances involving the destruction of her old America by new America, which have caused her already deteriorating mental state to detract beyond possible repair by the end of the play.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Flat Cargo Berhad Essay

Air Cargo Industry is a highly competitive with low profit margin industry operated by 85 operators within Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region. Flat Cargo Berhad (FCB) was one of them with several subsidiaries related to this industry. FCB was recognized as one of the biggest air freight companies in Malaysia. With the flourishing of e-business and secured agreements with well-established companies (i.e UPS, Nationwide Expressway, Citylink, Nippon Express etc), the boom of Flat Cargo Berhad was obvious. Even it was expected, FCB would have likely remained as the nation’s leading air cargo carrier if the scandal has not appeared. Things have started to get out of shape for FCB when the external auditor Kencana & Associates came across several suspicious findings that may suggest fraud. So we as consultant/advisor have noted down the problem and came up with the possible solutions in order to handle such suspicious circumstances. Problem 1 The auditors were unable to verify the aircrafts claimed to have been purchased by FCB in 2005. The audit team found a non-functional rundown aircraft barely worth RM231 million in the hangar.  FCB claimed to have purchase aircrafts in 2005, but there were no documentation found to support the claims of FCB that the purchasing ever took place which implied that fraud might have took place. As shown on the fleet information above, (Appendix B) there were two Boeing 727 and five Mcdonnell Douglas MD-11F (which later was no longer used for freight purposes) purchased by FCB in 2005 that were in â€Å"Active† status, but when inspected by the audit team, found Mior, Asif, Stephanie, Rohanna  only a rundown non-functional aircraft in the hangar which suggested inconsistency in the claim made by FCB. Solution 1 The audit department could take some measures to verify the claim made by FCB regarding the purchase of the aircrafts by: 1) Referring to the aircraft manufacturers regarding receipts, purchasing documents, invoices , contracts 2) Checking any related internal documents about the aircraft activities like schedules and activities of aircrafts i.e. engineering department for maintenance of aircraft. 3) Verify with the staffs of the company i.e. pilots, engineers regarding the aircrafts claimed to be purchased 4) Checking on leasing companies if there were any business activities from FCB (which would suggest obvious fraud since FCB claimed to have purchase the aircrafts) 5) Verify the registration and licensing of the aircraft at the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCAM) And if this aircraft was actually purchased as claimed, the management should encourage these solutions to avoid future confusions 1) Update bookkeeping regularly (transactions on purchases, sales, receipts and payments by an individual or organisation) Problem 2 Several debtors’ confirmation letters were returned because the addressees had changed their mailing addresses Due to this issue it will have a major impact on accounts receivable thus to cash flow. However this will lead to further problem as follows 1) No exact debtor figure available for reference 2) Possibility of bad debt 3) Weak debt servicing ability by company Mior, Asif, Stephanie, Rohanna Solution 2 Some measures could be taken by auditor to solve this issue by 1) Investigate the identity of the debtor or organization from reliable sources (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) for organisations, Jabatan Perdaftaran Negara (JPN) for individuals) 2) Find supporting documents of debt to rule out chances of fraud The management team could take these measures to avoid this problem by 1) Create an efficient system for debt servicing 2) Create a system of verifying the  claim of debtors to make sure fraud does not take place 3) Create a database for debtors and keep an updated portfolio on them for future use and reference 4) Create a department in the organization that deals solely with debt servicing (provided that they have a lot of debtors) Problem 3 A large sum of sales transactions was found with no supporting documents. Most of these transactions involved small clients.  This problem will mostly affect the revenue. In addition, it could lead to: 1) poor book-keeping process 2) manipulation on the revenue figure (RM 550 million) 3) manipulation of the shareholders interest in terms of dividend declared 4) balancing the closing process for the year of 2005 manually 5) complication on debt collection therefore the possibility of bad debt in future Solution 3 As far as we are concerned, the auditor can request the engineering department to provide the document on clients who are using their courier services and counter-check it with the Custom Department to verify the figure. We assume every activity must be reported to the  Mior, Asif, Stephanie, Rohanna.   DCAM. Therefore, from the backward process, the auditor would be able to verify the turnover figure. Problem 4 A loan received from a Hong Kong based company was found to be incorrectly recorded in the debtors’ account This issue will have the major influence on liabilities. It has violated the matching principle. The following problems can be determined due to these mistakes. 1) The impact on liabilities of the FCB will be decreased whereas assets increase due to the error on double entry process 2) The financial cost (interest expense) will decrease resulting increase of  profit before tax Solution 4 Counter-check and verify the Loan agreement between the FCB and Hong Kong based company. After verifying, the auditors will correct the double entry according to accounting standard by MASB. Problem 5 Several abnormal transactions involving the purchase of aircrafts by FCB and offsetting the debtors’ accounts were found in FCB’s books Following abnormal transaction is strictly against the process of accounting system. It violates many principle of accounting system i.e. principle of non-compensation, principles of sincerity and principles of consistency*. Abnormal transactions could lead to multiplier faults in the financial statement like 1) Overstated/Understated assets Usage of cash or credit was not determined properly Cutting down the overall debtor amount 2) Fail to determine bad debt 3) Fail to determine the true figure of debtors Solution 5 Actions that could be taken by auditors 1) Reconciliation of book keeping related to purchases of abnormal transactions 2) Cross proof each and every documents related to purchases and debtor 3) If possible ensure debtors confirmation letter Actions that could be taken by management 1) Not to mix up purchases with debtors 2) Debtors can be offset upon receiving money or against bad debt Conclusion In conclusion, these issues above could be avoided provided that delegation and segregation of duties were made to ensure accountability in bookkeeping and minimisation to fraud. The company could also hire an internal auditor to regularly inspect the financial condition and activities of the company. Accountability and counter-checking between one another is also crucial to minimize mistakes and deceit. It is such a shame that a company with such great Mior, Asif, Stephanie, Rohanna  potential (to be the leading cargo company in Malaysia) should suffer a fate such as this due to trivial avoidable mistakes and fraud. It is best that PLCs to work towards transparency within the company so that mistakes/problems could be detected and solved before it gets out of hand. References Ready Ratios. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Available:http://www.readyratios.com/reference/accounting/generally_accepted_accounting_ principles_gaap.html. Last accessed 4th Feb 2014