Treasury Management Practices at Universiti Utara Malaysia

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of treasury management practices at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Respondents of the research are the Bursar and a senior officer of the UUM’S Bursar Department. The type of research is a comparative study and the instruments of information collection used were through questionnaires and interviews. Descriptive method was employed in analyzing the data. The gathered information was compared with the Code of Practice on Treasury management by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), which is being adopted by University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Result of the research shows that the UUM’S Bursar Department does not fully adopted all the Code of Practice on Treasury management by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). However, UUM has partially adopted the treasury management practices such as in cash flow forecasting, investment, money laundering, staff training, reporting, performance measurement, and budgeting, accounting and auditing. This study is able to create awareness in understanding the importance and the function of treasury management. In reality, treasury management practice becomes more relevant to UUM in view that its stakeholder, the Government of Malaysia, might reduce future financial assistance. Moreover, UUM is already experiencing reduction of financial resources from government. Therefore, to ensure the optimal practice of treasury management, a framework on treasury management has been established to act as a guidance for the Bursar Department of UUM. Lastly, further research need to be done involving other public higher education institutions, so that a standard policy on treasury management practices for the whole public higher education institutions in Malaysia can be made a reality

Pressure relieving support surfaces (PRESSURE) trial : cost effectiveness analysis

Objective To assess tire cost effectiveness of alternating pressure mattresses compared with alternating pressure overlays for the prevention of pressure ulcers in patients admitted to hospital. Design Cost effectiveness analysis carried out alongside the pressure relieving support surfaces (PRESSURE) trial; a multicentre UK based pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Setting 11 hospitals in six UK NHS trusts. Participants Intention to treat population comprising 1971 participants. Main outcome measures Kaplan Meier estimates of restricted mean time to development of pressure ulcers and total costs for treatment in hospital. Results Alternating pressure mattresses were associated with lower overall costs (283.6 pound per patient on average, 95% confidence interval -377.59 pound to. 976.79) pound mainly due to reduced length of stay in hospital, and greater benefits (a delay in time to ulceration of 10.64 days on average, - 24.40 to 3.09). The differences in health benefits and total costs for hospital stay between alternating pressure mattresses and alternating pressure overlays were not statistically significant; however, a cost effectiveness acceptability curve indicated that on average alternating pressure mattresses compared with alternating pressure overlays were associated with air 80% probability of being cost saving. Conclusion Alternating pressure mattresses for the prevention of pressure ulcers are more likely to be cost effective and are more acceptable to patients than alternating pressure overlays

Electronic transformation of government in the U.K.: a research agenda

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory research project into future e-Government (electronic Government) initiatives. The Virtual Institute for Electronic Government Research (VIEGO) project aimed at identifying and further developing the research agenda of e-Government based on a solid practical ground. As such, the paper offers a novel methodology in identifying the road map for future e-Government initiatives based on a series of workshops organised around the U.K. hosting a mixture of stakeholders involving both academics and parishioners. The analysis of the VIEGO workshops depicted that an e-Government research agenda involves a combination of social, technological and organisational issues at both governmental and individual citizen level, ultimately driven by empirical case-based experience and active participation in e-Government processes. Unlike other propositions for the future of e-Government offered in the e- Government literature, raised research questions not only originated from an analysis of e-Government literature but also on the outcome of brainstorming, reflections and contemplations throughout the duration of the project

Library purchasing consortia in the UK: activity and practice

This Briefing is based on a survey undertaken for a BLRIC/LIC-funded research project (RIC/G/403). It describes the models of operation of purchasing consortia in four library sectors (further education, health, higher education and public libraries) and their expenditure patterns. It discusses present and future savings deriving from consortial activity and closes by predicting future activity. A list of active consortia is provided. The views expressed are those of the authors, not of BLRIC or LIC. The full report is available from CPI Ltd (e-mail [email protected] quoting ISBN 1 898869 56 1)

Heritage Quay: What Will You Discover? Transforming the Archives of the University of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK

The Heritage Quay project is changing how archive services at the University of Huddersfield are delivered. This article examines how the Staff/Space/Collections dependency model and Customer Service Excellence framework have been used, and what lessons can be drawn for other archives

Auditor Independence-Its Importance to the External Auditor's Role in Banking Regulation and Supervision

The role of the external auditor in the supervisory process requires standards such as independence,objectivity and integrity to be achieved. Even though the regulator and external auditor perform similar functions, namely the verification of financial statements, they serve particular interests. The regulator works towards safeguarding financial stability and investor interests. On the other hand, the external auditor serves the private interests of the shareholders of a company. The financial audit remains an important aspect of corporate governance that makes management accountable to shareholders for its stewardship of a company2. The external auditor may however, have a commercial interest too. The debate surrounding the role of external auditors focusses in particular on auditor independence. A survey by the magazine “Financial Director” shows that the fees derived from audit clients in terms of non-audit services are significant in comparison with fees generated through auditing.3 Accounting firms sometimes engage in a practice called “low balling” whereby they set audit fees at less than the market rate and make up for the deficit by providing non audit services. As a result, some audit firms have commercial interests to protect too. There is concern that the auditor's interests to protect shareholders of a company and his commercial interests do not conflict with each other. Sufficient measures need to be in place to ensure that the external auditor's independence is not affected. Brussels proposed a new directive for auditors to try to prevent further scandals such as those of Enron and Parmalat.4 The new directive states that all firms listed on the stock market must have independent audit committees which will recommend an auditor for shareholder approval.5 It also states that auditors or audit partners must be rotated but does not mention the separation of auditors from consultancy work despite protests that there is a link to compromising the independence of auditors.6 However this may be because Brussels also shares the view that there is no evidence confirming correlation between levels of non-audit fees and audit failures and that as a result, sufficient safeguards are in place.7 This paper aims to consider the importance of auditor independence in the external auditor's role in banking regulation and supervision. In doing so, it also considers factors which may threaten independence and efforts which have been introduced to act as safeguards to the auditor's independence. It will also support the claim that auditor independence is indeed central to the auditor's role in banking regulation and supervision

Reform of police pensions in England and Wales

We analyse pension reforms for police officers in England and Wales using force-level data. We quantify the impact on overall police pension plan liabilities, examining incidence across police officers, national and local taxpayers. We also examine reforms of retirement rules, especially concerning early retirement on grounds of ill-health. Differences in ill-health retirement across forces are statistically related to area-specific stresses of policing and force-specific human resources policies. Reforms in 2006 impacted primarily on the level of ill-health retirement among forces with above-average rates of early retirement. We find residual differences in post-2006 ill-health retirement rates across forces are related to differential capacities to raise revenue from local property taxes