On Nov. 14, 2008, an opinion was issued on the SEC¿s FY '08 and '07 financial statements. Also, an opinion was issued on the effectiveness of SEC¿s internal control over financial reporting (incl. safeguarding of assets) and over compliance as of Sept. 30, 2008, and an evaluation of SEC¿s compliance with selected provisions of laws and reg¿s. during FY '08. This report presents issues identified during a FY '08 audit of SEC¿s internal controls and accounting procedures and recommends actions to address these issues. This report makes 19 recommend. to strengthen internal controls and accounting procedures. These recommend. are in addition to 24 recommend. included in prior year audits of SEC¿s financial statements that still need to be fully addressed.

Management accounting has been the basic toolbox in business administration for decades. Today it is an integral part of all curricula in business education and no student can afford not to be familiar with its basic concepts and instruments. At the same time, business in general, and management accounting in particular, is becoming more and more international. English clearly has evolved as the "lingua franca" of international business. Academics, students as well as practitioners exchange their views and ideas, discuss concepts and communicate with each other in English. This is certainly also true for management accounting and control. Management Accounting is becoming more and more international. ?Management Accounting and Control? is a new textbook in English covering concepts and instruments of management accounting at an introductory level (primarily at the Bachelor level, but also suited for general management and MBA courses due to a strong focus on practical relevance). This textbook covers all topics that are relevant in management accounting in business organizations that are typically covered in German and Central European Bachelor courses on management accounting and control. After a general introduction to the field of management accounting and control the book discusses cost management as an extension of cost accounting. Typical cost management instruments such as target costing, life cycle costing and process-based costing approaches are explained in detail. Differences between Anglo-American activity-based costing (ABC) and German process-based costing are highlighted. The book then turns to an extensive discussion of planning and budgeting tasks in management accounting with a strong focus on the practical application of the topic such as developing a budget in practice. Another chapter is dedicated to a comparison of traditional budgeting with modern /alternative budgeting approaches. A major part of the book is dedicated to the broad area of performance management. The relevance of financial statement information for performance management purposes is discussed in detail. In addition, the most widely spread financial performance indicators are illustrated using real-world examples. The book also includes detailed content on value-based management control concepts. In a consecutive chapter, performance measurement is linked with strategy while extensively discussing the Balanced Scorecard as a key tool in strategic performance management. The remaining parts of the book deal with management reporting as one of the main operative tasks in management accounting practice. The book closes with insight into new fields and developments that currently influence management accounting practices and research and promise to play an increasingly important role in the future.

Financial management at the Ministry of Justice has improved considerably since the National Audit Office last examined this subject in 2010 (HC 187, ISBN 9780102965339). The Ministry now has effective governance structures in place and, in 2010-11, managed its money far more effectively, allowing it to redeploy funds to where they were most needed. Financial management is now much more central to the operation of the organisation and the quality and consistency of financial planning and forecasting have improved. Financial information for decision making is more relevant and useful, with the Ministry's planning work allowing it to bring together a wide range of business information to estimate the financial implications of its workload. It has also improved oversight of its arm's-length bodies. The Ministry still has gaps in financial reporting skills and some of its underlying systems need further improvement. It was one of only two government departments that failed to produce their financial accounts by the 2011 summer Parliamentary recess, mainly due to the accounts for the National Offender Management Service being produced late. The Legal Services Commission, an arm's-length body of the MOJ, had the audit opinion on its 2010-11 accounts qualified owing to the potential level of error, put at an estimated £50 million. There has also been little change in how the Ministry monitors and collects assets due under confiscation orders, with the amount of outstanding debt having increased by almost £400 million in 2010-11.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together