問39
頻出度★★★
内部統制の説明として, 適切なものはどれか。
平成23年度 特別試験 ITパスポート試験 問39
マネジメント系システム監査 › 内部統制
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 39
- ア
正解 The correct answer is ア. Internal control is a process that is built into an organization's operations and carried out by all members of the organization, and it aims at obtaining reasonable assurance that the following four objectives are being achieved. These are: (1) effectiveness and efficiency of operations — raising the effect and efficiency of work so that the goals of business activities are achieved; (2) reliability of financial reporting — ensuring the reliability of financial information disclosed externally, such as financial statements; (3) compliance with laws and regulations related to business activities (compliance) — observing laws, standards, and internal company rules; and (4) safeguarding of assets — ensuring that assets are acquired, used, and disposed of under proper procedures. Choice ア lists exactly these four objectives and then states “a process carried out by all members within an enterprise”, so its objectives, its actors, and its nature all match the definition. Two points are worth keeping in mind here. First, internal control does not belong only to management or to the audit department; management bears the ultimate responsibility for establishing and operating it, but everyone in the organization, from managers down to ordinary employees, takes on a role and is involved. Second, internal control is not a “thing” such as a set of rules or a document, but a “process” that is built into everyday work and keeps functioning continuously. In addition, in order to achieve these four objectives, internal control consists of six basic components: the control environment, risk assessment and response, control activities, information and communication, monitoring, and response to IT (information technology). Therefore, the appropriate description of internal control is ア.
Incorrectイ
Managers entrusted with running the business raising funds from financial institutions and buying out shares from shareholders in order to acquire management control is a description of MBO (Management Buyout). An MBO is a corporate-acquisition and capital-policy technique used, for example, when a parent company spins off a subsidiary, or when a listed company wants to go private so that its management is not swayed by short-term share-price movements; its very purpose is the transfer of management control itself. Internal control, by contrast, is a process built into everyday work and carried out by all members of the organization in order to give reasonable assurance that the four objectives are achieved, so the two differ completely in both purpose and nature. Therefore this choice is wrong.
Incorrectウ
The idea of enriching both one's work and one's personal life away from work in a balanced way, without either one being sacrificed, is a description of work-life balance (Work-Life Balance, the harmonization of work and life). It is pursued through measures such as correcting long working hours, supporting the combination of work with childcare or nursing care, and introducing telework and flextime systems. It is an idea about ways of working and the use of human resources, and it has nothing to do with the four objectives of internal control — effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of financial reporting, compliance with laws and regulations, and safeguarding of assets. Therefore this choice is wrong.
Incorrectエ
An organization's initiative to achieve the goals of its activities, being a method aimed at optimizing both business operations and systems together, is a description of EA (Enterprise Architecture). EA is a method that, in order to optimize the organization as a whole, uses four frameworks — business architecture, data architecture, application architecture, and technology architecture — to visualize the current state (As-Is) and the ideal state (To-Be) and to draw up a migration plan. It is a methodology for designing and improving operations and systems, not a process carried out by all members of the organization to give reasonable assurance that the four objectives are achieved. Therefore this choice is wrong.
ここがポイント
- Definition of internal control — Internal control is a process that is built into operations and carried out by all members of the organization in order to obtain reasonable assurance that four objectives are being achieved: (1) effectiveness and efficiency of operations, (2) reliability of financial reporting, (3) compliance with laws and regulations related to business activities (compliance), and (4) safeguarding of assets. The three keywords “four objectives”, “all members” and “process” are the keys to judging this kind of question.
- The six basic components of internal control and telling confusable terms apart — Internal control is made up of six components: the control environment, risk assessment and response, control activities, information and communication, monitoring, and response to IT. Terms asked about in similar contexts include MBO (management buying up the company's own shares and acquiring management control), work-life balance (harmonizing work and personal life), and EA (a method for optimizing operations and systems as a whole); keep in mind that each differs in its purpose and its object.
用語