CIMA CIMAPRO19-CS3-1 Exam Actual Questions

Twelve hours have passed since you received the telephone call concerning the oil spillage.

You receive the following telephone call from William Seaton, Director of Finance:

''The press has got a hold of the story about the oil leak. Our share price has taken a major hit. Indeed, Slide's market capitalisation has fallen by a third since the stock exchange opened for business. There is a lot of loose talk in the press about the knock-on effect of this crisis for Slide. It has not escaped anybody's notice that there are news teams showing injured wildlife. There is also a great deal of footage being broadcast on the other sites around the world where we are revitalising oil wells using the same technology that was in use at AZ40.

Our experts have only just arrived at the spillage site. While they were on the corporate jet they emailed their initial thoughts, based on their understanding of what went wrong. Our engineers anticipate a major operation to block the leak by pumping cement into the bore hole at a low pressure. This will be expensive, but the cost will be less than one tenth of the reduction in our market capitalisation.

I need an email from you:

Firstly, I need a clear explanation of the key risks that Slide now faces because of this crisis. I am only interested in those with a high risk and high consequence and I need you to justify those classifications because the Board will need to prioritise its responses.

Secondly, two related issues: I need you to explain why Slide's share price has fallen to such an extent AND to recommend, with reasons, whether we should release our costings of the repair scheme at this time.

It goes without saying that I need this urgently.''

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It is now three days since the start of the oil spillage crisis.

You have received the following email from William Seaton, Director of Finance:

From: William Seaton, Director of Finance

To: Finance Manager

Subject: Crisis management issues

Hi,

A quick update on the latest developments.

We have brought Block Associates in to lead the operations on dealing with the oil spill. It has assigned one of its leading consultants to take charge of this for us. We have paid Block Associates an annual retainer for many years, but we have never actually had to call on its services because we have been able to contain any environmental problems using our own resources.

Using Block Associates is going to be expensive. It insists on being free to bring in whatever equipment and personnel are required to resolve matters and to charge that on the basis of cost plus 25%. Our annual retainer is simply the cost of ensuring that it will respond on this basis if required.

We have had some murmurings of discontent already because our own engineers and geologists have made significant progress in identifying the cause of the spillage and they believe that they are capable of bringing it to a successful conclusion. They have suggested that it would be both quicker and cheaper to leave them in charge, while retaining the option to bring in Block Associates at a later date if they fail.

Firstly, what factors should we take into account in deciding whether to leave our own experts in charge of this operation rather than using Block Associates?

Secondly, how should we manage our relationship with Block Associates if we decide that it should be used?

Thirdly, two things: The Board is concerned that Slide's engineers and geologists have already become disillusioned by the decision to consider calling in Block Associates. We cannot afford to lose their commitment or to see them decide to leave Slide in the longer term. I need you to provide me with some ideas as to how we can motivate them to give their best performance for the duration of this crisis AND to inspire them to remain in Slide's employment after the crisis has been resolved.

William

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You have just received the following email:

From: William Seaton, Director of Finance

To: Finance Manager

Subject: Oil reserves

Hi,

This email arrived from the Head Geologist earlier today. I am concerned that many of our colleagues understand very little other than rock formations and drilling reports. They certainly misunderstand accounting issues. I have already had some very confused discussions with the other members of the Board.

I need a very clear report from you that I can circulate to the other Board members. I am not particularly interested in the technical accounting rules. I do not think that you necessarily require an accounting standard to tell you that a particular disclosure is misleading.

I need your report to cover the following:

Should we make a public announcement of this information? I would like a clear indication of the implications for our

relationship with our various stakeholders AND the ethical issues that you feel are relevant.

What are the implications for our share price? I would like your analysis to consider the factors that will indicate how

our share price will change upon the announcement.

Thanks

William

The email referred to above can be found by clicking on the Reference Materials button.

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From: Martin Wills, Head Geologist

To: William Seaton, Director of Finance

Subject: Reserves

Hi William,

I have reviewed the situation with respect to our ''probable'' or ''2P'' reserves, as disclosed in our latest annual report. I am sorry to say that we have to downgrade our figures with respect to reserves. I am recommending that all extraction activities cease for the foreseeable future on the North Atlantic and South Atlantic fields and that the proved reserves be downgraded from proved to probable.

I have to stress that this is not attributable to any past error on the part of the geologists. The world oil price has been depressed and the discovery of large deposits of shale oil in the USA suggests that the oil price will not recover for some time. That means that some oil wells that were commercially viable this time last year are no longer worth processing.

The oil remains under the rock and I have no doubt that we will restore operations in the long term.

We are by no means the only oil company to have been forced to take this action.

The one piece of good news is that the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014 have already been published. My understanding is that we do not have to withdraw them, so unless you put an advertisement in the press, we can carry on quietly trying to sort this mess out.

I have my best people working on ways to extract oil from our wells more efficiently, so we may be able to increase production over the next year or so.

Martin

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William Seaton, the Director of Finance stopped you in the corridor a week after the Head Geologist's announcement that reserves had been overstated:

''We informed the stock exchange that our reserves had been downgraded and our share price has taken a solid hit. We need to work towards making sure that this is never repeated.

The Board is actively considering some changes that we hope will improve our forecasting system. I am not convinced that the suggestions will work. Frankly, if we could predict the future with certainty then I would have us stop looking for oil and start selling forecasts.

I would like you to work through the proposals that have been put forward and to recommend on their adoption, with changes if you think it necessary. The issues that we are most seriously considering are:

A suggestion that Big Data could be used to monitor oil prices. Do you think this would be a sensible way to proceed?

A suggestion that we should update our reserves information on the company website in real time. Do you think that would be an effective communication strategy?

Finally, we have considered a number of issues surrounding the motivation and inspiration of our geologists. Two quite distinct schemes have been proposed. Firstly, some Board members believe that our geologists should be rewarded in relation to the accuracy of their forecasts. Bonuses will be paid on the basis of correct initial evaluation of wells. The bonus will increase if a well that was initially identified as commercially viable goes into production and will decrease if a well that was classified as viable is reclassified as unproductive.

Secondly, other members of the Board believe that there should be a greater degree of accountability on the part of geologists. The incorrect classification of a well's potential could be treated as a disciplinary matter. Please provide a detailed analysis of EACH of those suggestions.''

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