Corporate Governance

This is a business report.

Assessment Task 2

Length: 2,400 words total (+/- 10%), comprising 1,200 words for each of the 2 parts in the question. Reference list and cover sheet details are not included in this word-limit total.
Weighting: 30% of total unit marks – 15% for each part

Part 1 (15%)
Assessment Criteria:
• Demonstration of knowledge of the issues and evidence of wide reading to support your analysis
• Demonstration of your ability to apply the knowledge to identify keys issues leading to your recommendations
• Evidence of sound reasoning and the exercise of professional judgement to support your recommendations
• Development and statement of concise recommendations for presentation to the Chairman
• Overall structure and professional presentation of your report to the Chairman
• High quality written communication of concepts and terms as the Chairman can be assumed to be professionally competent in corporate governance

‘The US Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Australian mining company BHP Billiton with a $25 million fine for practices tied to gifts offered to foreign government officials during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
BHP agreed to pay the fine to settle the charges, the SEC said.
The mining company invited 176 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises to attend the Beijing Games at BHP’s expense, the SEC said in its complaint. The sponsored guests were primarily from countries in Africa and Asia and received hospitality packages, that were valued at $12,000 to $16,000 a package, the commission said.
The SEC said BHP failed to provide employees with specific training on how to evaluate the bribery risk of an invitation … It didn’t have procedures to ensure meaningful preparation, review and approval of requests … in violation of the internal control provisions of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.’
Dow Jones Institutional News, ‘SEC Fines BHP Billiton $25Million’, 20 May 2015
http://www.asx.com.au/prices/market-news-detailHome.htm?an=DJDN000020150520eb5k001yo

Required
Assume you have been employed as a corporate governance consultant by the Chairman of BHP Billiton Ltd. Your assignment is to prepare a report for the Chairman recommending best practice corporate governance guidelines for the company to adopt so that it can manage and prevent any future issues of alleged corporate malpractice or other actions that could be classified as corrupt practices by executives or directors of the company.

Part 2 (15%)
Assessment Criteria:
• Demonstration of knowledge of the issues and evidence of wide reading to support your analysis
• Demonstration of your ability to apply the knowledge to identify keys issues leading to your recommendations
• Evidence of sound reasoning and the exercise of professional judgement to support your recommendations
• Development and statement of concise recommendations for presentation to the AII
• Overall structure and professional presentation of your report to the AII
• High quality written communication of concepts and terms in ordinary English as the report will be published on the AII web site and not all readers can be assumed to be professionally competent in corporate governance

‘FIFA, an enterprise worth billions, has plenty of legitimate resources to fight off the corruption allegations – some $400 million a year from sponsorship alone. So, as the US government follows the money allegedly coming in through illegitimate channels, fans should follow the money FIFA gets from corporate sponsors, which enables its unsavoury business as usual. The deaths of thousands of migrant workers building World Cup stadiums and other rampant labor abuse have done little to move soccer’s giant marketing partners – Visa, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s – so perhaps an international criminal investigation might do the trick. …
According to Transparency International poll of 35,000 people from 30 different countries, 69.2 per cent of soccer fans have no faith in FIFA. In the last year, some big-name sponsors have started to take notice, with Emirates, Johnson and Johnson and Sony ending partnerships with Blatter’s group.’
Kavitha A. Davidson, ‘FIFA’s Corporate Sponsors Abet Soccer’s Corruption’, Bloomberg View, 27 May 2015
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-27/fifa-s-corporate-sponsors-abet-soccer-s-corruption

Required
Assume you have been employed as a corporate governance consultant by the Association of Institutional Investors (AII). The AII is concerned with the risks associated with investments in corporations sponsoring FIFA. In order to minimise this risk the AII wants to know how the corporate governance of FIFA should be reformed to meet contemporary standards of best practice in corporate governance. Your assignment is to prepare a report to be published on the AII web site recommending the corporate governance changes required to be made by FIFA so that AII members can continue to invest in FIFAs’ corporate sponsors without exposure to investment risk associated with FIFA’s current alleged corporate governance deficiencies.

The following Guidance is provided to assist you in finalisation and submission of Assessment Task 2.
1. Please submit your assignment using the Turnitin Facility in the ‘Assessment Details’ tab on the unit web site. A separate Turnitin Facility has been set up for each of the cohorts in this unit. Ensure you submit your assignment in the relevant cohort – MIT New Zealand, MDIS Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Sydney Campus, Distance Education, and Gold Coast Campus.
2. The Turnitin Facility for Late Submission is ONLY available for students who have been approved to submit late. Unapproved Late Submissions will be penalised at the rate of 10% per day up to a maximum of 50%. If there are technical difficulties with Turnitin, as occurred with Assignment 1, you will still need to submit using the Late Submission tab but there will be no penalty.
3. The Assignment requires two separate reports to be included and submitted in a SINGLE document using Turnitin. The first report is directed to the company Chairman who by definition is deemed to be a corporate governance professional. This report should use language and terminology consistent with the knowledge and experience of a professional company director. The second report is directed to the Association of Institutional Investors and may include people who are not corporate governance professionals. This report needs to be written so that its contents convey the message in a writing style that can be understood by the general public.
4. Each of the reports is to be written in a professional business manner. There is no prescribed format for a business report. The final form and content is a matter of professional judgement for the report author and should vary to take account of the prescribed audience for the report. Specific guidance on writing reports in the School of Business and Tourism is attached in the Assessment Help tab of the web site.
5. A Scaffold to assist you analysing the issues to be addressed in each report for Assessment Task 2 has been added in the Assessment Help tab.
6. Critical issues in business professional report writing are: Excellence in writing quality with zero tolerance of typographical or spelling errors; Precise sentence structure; Avoidance of dense argument or analysis; Clear and concise recommendations; No plagiarism – full citation of all sources is mandatory; and balanced argument and analysis of issues under consideration.
7. A separate bibliography is required for each report. The bibliography should contain only references that are relevant to the issues discussed in the report. Details on the Harvard referencing style are include in the Assessment Help tab.
8. Assessment of your reports will be based on meeting the Master (Level 9) National Threshold Learning Standards for Knowledge, Application, Judgement and Communication in the business disciplines. Please read closely the synopsis of the National Threshold Learning Standards at the opening section of your assessment tasks. The matrix below maps the National Threshold Learning Standards to the marking criteria for the assignment questions