Follow up from Farshid led to additional goodies. By 10 am UK time this morning, I'll have changed www.duncanwil.co.uk/conflicts.html I don’t have a problem with identifying the 4 user groups; however it’s the conflict details I’m having trouble with. I know of one conflict of interest example which is: The shareholders might exhibit a degree of mistrust and be concerned that the directors will act in their own best interests even to the detriment of the company. There may even be hostility towards a potential competitor and the directors are unlikely to volunteer information about a company’s performance if that could be used by a competitor. Management might therefore be tempted to withhold information or to distort any figures that they do publish. Or, the company may hide debt figures to attract more investors. This is how the interests conflict as investors want clear figures of debt or other figures, but the management wants more investment. So, see what I did to follow up. DW

More productivity. Two more sets of questions leading to three more pages. New pages on Brazilian Accounting developments ... www.duncanwil.co.uk/brazacc.html Environmental and Sustainability Reporting ... www.duncanwil.co.uk/envsust.html Potential Conflicts of Interest in Financial Reprorting ... www.duncanwil.co.uk/conflicts.html More excellence from yours truly. DW

Grace asked about inflation accounting: for a university assignment by the look of it. Grace's time was severely limited so I gave her a top of the head response. Not much specific detail in what follows, but it gives a decent general overview. historical cost accounting (hca) is the situation in which accountants record revenue, expenditure and asset acquisition and disposal at historical cost: that is, the actual amounts of money, or money's worth, received or paid to complete the transaction. the big advantage of hca is that it leads to absolute certainty and it fits in perfectly with the cash flow statement. Hca tells us exactly what has been paid and what has been received and therefore there is no doubt about balance sheet amounts. The alternatives, where accountants attempt to take inflation into account, can lead to many problems. There have been several forms of current cost accounting, purchasing power accounting and so on since the mid 1970s that have been proposed as alternatives to hca. The reason the alternatives have not survived, and IAS 15 on inflation accounting is about to be replaced, if it hasn't been already, is that no one can agree on the best way to represent accounting values. Hca provides definite values, other methods don't! the disadvantages of hca include the fact that hca values can relate to transactions that could be a year old, 10 years old and as much as 100 years old. It's true that some businesses have old equipment and old stocks (inventories) that are still working well but that were bought a long time ago: the problem is that the acquisition value may be out of date and so the balance sheet is showing out of date values. Taxation problems come with inflation accounting. In times of high levels of inflation, profits are inflated and therefore the tax bill tends to increase: this is the reason that inflation accounting was developed in the UK and elsewhere in the 1970s and onwards. Guess what, though? Accountants found solutions to the inflation accounting problem that led to lower taxation but the Inland Revenue didn't like what the accountants had done and rejected the accountants' proposals ... and so it went on. comments: the UK and the IASC have both attempted to provide inflation accounting standards and both have had to admit defeat. The UK saw several inflation accounting committees in the 1970s and onwards as accountants attempted to get to grips with this issue. Then accounting standards appeared ... and disappeared. The problem is that when inflation is a problem, inflation accounting is a problem. When, as now, inflation is not a problem, no one cares about inflation accounting. However, government departments do still prepare current cost accounting statements! the way forward? this is a strange issue that tends to be unimportant as accountants don't like it. Many people believe that cash based accounting gives plenty of indication of the solution to inflation accounting problems. NOTE: if you want a considered answer from me on any subject that I can get to grips with, please give me enough time! DW

On Tuesday night there we were minding our own business when a wasp flew into the living room. In February. In England. Couldn't believe it! After a chase it disappeared. Then it reappeared an hour or so later after it had warmed up at which point I was able to stun it and fling it back outside! Forgot to tell you that on the drive back from Yorkshire I came down the M1 motorway ... nightmare. Got to junction 21 around Leicester and the signs said be prepared to queue for a while. We queued. And queued. And queued. Then the traffic on the other carriageway stopped completely: there was an accident there and they closed the motorway for miles. We plodded on and on and then after about an hour and around 10 miles we took off at normal speeds with nary a sign of why we had gone so slowly. I felt sorry for the other people on the other carriageway as they had come to a complete stop for miles behind the accident. Consider that so many people were put to great inconvenience by someone's dreadful driving. Watched with some amusement as some smart Alek broke through the barriers as he clearly felt he shouldn't be among the mass of people to have to stop and wait. As we reached him, so did a policeman and he was doubtless booked for his crime. Nevertheless, as the policeman returned, the miscreant didn't so he probably got home on time whilst the rest of them didn't. Selfish geezer! I hope his fine is massive. DW

There is an inscription just above the entrance to Stoodley Pike that I downloaded from this site: STOODLEY PIKE A PEACETIME MONUMENT ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION COMMENDED IN 1814 TO COMMEMORATE THE SURRENDER OF PARIS TO THE ALLIES AND FINISHED AFTER THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO WHEN PEACE WAS DECLAR- -ED IN 1815. BY A STRANGE COINCIDENCE THE PIKE FELL ON THE DAY THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR LEFT LONDON BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF WAR WITH RUSSIA AND WAS REBUILT WHEN PEACE WAS RESTORED 1856 REPAIRED AND LIGHTENING CONDUCTOR 1889 DW

Here's some snaps from my weekend away. for those of you who don't know here's a picture of a real dry stone wall. A dry stone wall is called dry because it has been built out of stone but WITHOUT cement or fixings of any kind: Here is the chronicle of the walk to Stoodley Pike in pics: the start of the walk ... the Pike just comes into view now Dima huddled for warmth ... the directional hoar frost! Don't tell Dima's mother but he forgot his hat, scarf, gloves ... we shared a pair of gloves! Now back to Harry Ramsden's, beginning with a lovely welcoming view on a freezing Friday night This is what fish and chips are all about! There are a couple of not in the least bit misty pics of our walk at Halifax Today that you might care to take a look at: good description of where we went together with details of other walks in the area. DW

Saturday morning 22 February seemed like a good time to take a walk. So sister Susan, Dima and I drove from Halifax to Mankinholes above Todmorden (home town for sister and I) and set off for Stoodley Pike: a huge blackened stone monument to Britain's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. This walk is not far but it starts of with a long uphill drag through sheep farming land. Rough grass, no trees, rocky and muddy by turns. Very misty morning unfortunately, otherwise the views up and around the Calder Valley are spectacular at times. After half a mile or so, the walk reaches the edge of the moor and it's then a level walk to the Pike. Again, rocky and muddy but now with fog and a rattling, icy wind. Lesser mortals would have faded and turned back of course but we soldiered on! On a normal day the Pike is visible for miles but today we had to get to within 30 yards before it suddenly appeared out of the fog: it looks eery like this. Dima had sped on ahead and when we got to the Pike we found him huddled in a corner of it in the lee of the wind. Only Dima and I went up to the balcony of the Pike, Susan having done that many times! I last did this when I was 16 years old I think ... that's a while ago. One of the dangers of going into and up the monument is that the stairs are unlit and for a short distance it is pitch black ... and it has been known for sheep to come hurtling down the steps as the seek to avoid being trapped by humans. So a good shout and a few claps of the hand at the very beginning to alert the sheep that you are and hope that this gets them down BEFORE you start to climb. The wind brought hoar frost with it and the wind came in so strongly that it left the hoar frost arranged in patterns rather than just depositing it. Our journey down took us beyond the pike and down onto the nearby Longdon Road, more of a path, and to our family graveyard at Mankinholes where we paid our respects to parents, brothers and sister. On to the Top Brink pub where we tucked into gooey puddings and custard and cups of coffee! A rattling, bracing, 4 mile walk. Must go back in better weather! DW

Did you want to hear that the lawn is fine?: a little yellow rather than green but it has survived and the mornings have warmed up anyway. Spent the weekend in Yorkshire with brothers and sisters and their families and that was a good boozy lack of sleep do that was enjoyed by all. The big event was an evening in Guisely near Leeds at Harry Ramsden's 75 year old chip shop. Slap up dinner of fish, chips, mushy peas, scraps, tea, bread and butter: can't beat it. Vegetarianism suspended for one meal! Here's a story to make your hair curl. There's a school in West Yorkshire that has just had a new science block built. A good building by all accounts that should serve the community well enough. However, just when they thought they'd finished the building work and were thinking of moving in, they realised that they had forgotten to install the water and gas services ... not just in one or two rooms but in the entire block. I wonder if anyone has been hauled over the coals for that? A couple of true conversations for you: Number 1 Yorkshireman to Yorkshiremen at a small gathering where food and beer were on offer: mmmm, this Lancashire cheese is really good. Whilst Tyke is munching, Lancastrian enters the room and sidles up to the food Yorkshireman to Lancastrian: This Lancashire cheese is rubbish! Number 2 Man 1 enters toilet in a pub and greets Man 2 who is already there doing his business. Man 1: Hello, alright? Man 2: No, none of my lottery numbers came up. All my plans have gone awry! Man 1: Sorry for that! End of pithy conversation!! DW

The lawn: it's never been so frosty! Ever since I hacked at my grass we've had the deepest of deep frosts and since it's a north facing lawn it doesn't always warm up during the day. Mrs W said that "The house at the end has a very green lawn so why don't I ask them how they do it?" Pride well and truly besmirched I retorted with "My lawn is the best on the entire estate normally and it only started to go funny on me at the end of last summer as the new seed I sowed failed to take and the weedkiller that I applied killed the weeds, the grass and the *$!??*@ soil." So what's a chap to do? I will have the best lawn again, never fear, even if I have to returf the thing. It's only a small patch and if Chelsea football club can returf their entire football pitch in the middle of January, I'm sure I can do the same come the Spring. DW

Here's a thing: any electricians or radio hams out there? The other day I was in the kitchen listening to the radio and blethering with Dima when I picked up the kettle so that I could fill it and then make a cup of tea. As soon as I'd got the kettle away from its base the radio went funny. I thought, that's odd, and put it back: the radio sorted itself out. I picked up the kettle again to test it and again the radio went funny. This evening whilst attacking a pile of vegetables as I attempted to convince them that they ought to be a decent curry, I tried to fill the kettle again and again the radio went all skew whiff on me. This only happens with Radio 4, all other, inferior, stations being immune; and kettle and radio are about 1 metre apart. Any answers?? DW

At last here are a couple of snaps from my Dorchester sojourn! A Cob wall: what's a Cob wall? Well, you can see that it's thatched for a start and why would one thatch an ordinary wall? The story is that in the days when bricks were scarce, people would use cob to construct walls, houses and the like. Cob is a mixture of straw and earth all pounded together to form a paste that they then use to render the wall. Since Cob's not that stable in the rain, they thatch the top of the wall for protection and there you are. More historical excellence from you know who! The Toll House at the Abbey. A hexagonal hip roof for you! Notice the way the windows point in two directions: to see the traffic coming from left and right. The bridge that carried the toll in days of yore is to the right as we look at this picture. The bridge that's there now is a nineteenth century monstrosity: not Victorian gothic tripe but just a very plain old thing. Apparently the toll house has been a sweet shop in its time as well as being a toll house; and at the moment I am reliably informed it is owned by an architect! Hope you enjoyed these snaps! DW

I took a risk after we got back from Wantage: I mowed the lawn! I was sick and tired of looking at my tired and bedraggled lawn so even though the weather's cold and not ideal for lawn maintenance, I mowed it. I did it roughly overall but after I'd finished I felt a lot better. I then washed the car with icy cold water and sponge. I went in search of car shampoo but Mrs W informed me that I (that's me, myself and NOT, most definitely NOT, her) had thrown the bottle away when I had FINISHED it. Piffle! So, it's got the muck off but it still needs more cleaning. Then there's the mud inside the vehicle, too! Dima wore a pullover on Saturday night that showed off his athletic looking figure rather well. I said, why can't I have a pullover like that: to enahance and show off my physique in the same way. This is true: it turns out I was wearing exactly the same style of pullover as Dima but whilst his is burgundy mine is very dark grey. Oh! I then concluded that my pullover has either been hideously stretched or they got the design wrong and that's why I look like a sack of spuds!! Anybody want to see the proof? Can't win, eh? DW

Out and about again, folks! This time, Dima and I went rummaging around Wantage: an old and well establish small town around 8 miles or so from where we live. Looking at the Ordnance Survey map before we went out, we found lots of "Gallops": not knowing why, we sallied forth. We were also looking for evidence of the age of settlements from the maps, how things that were green and speckly on the map looked in real life, how contours panned out in reality. The gallops are for racing horses. Newbury race course in near by and we came across the Valley of the Racehorse with all of these gallops in it. Interesting to see something I'd never even thought of before but it makes perfect sense once you've realised what's happening! The villages around Wantage, Letcombe Bassett, Lambourn and so on are all old and well established. Whilst some of the properties were a bit cheaper than I thought they might be, they were still expensive. It's also still the case that there are many 15th, 16th and 17th century working men's cottages that are now inhabited by very wealthy people. So the cottage that your great, great, great, great grandparents lived in as they tilled the soil or hew stones and drew water from is now occupied by an architect or an accountant or a race horse trainer and he's paid £500,000 for it! There is a very attractive Alms House building in Lambourn: it has a central water well, too, just like the better maintained Alms Houses in Ewelme. We found a new Dobbin: remember the sad looking, old horse we found in January? We found two lithe, younger horses this time and as we ran towards them shouting "Dobbin, Dobbin!", they hurtled towards us with love and affection in their eyes. We talked across a gap between two fences, barbed wire attached to one of them; but the mint I held out to them didn't hold enough attraction for them. They were nervous, perhaps skittish and they wouldn't take the bait! Our short lived but intense relationship was smashed when some aging mountain bikers stopped 5 yards away from us as they plotted their route: maps in hand, bikes between their thighs and loud voices spewing from their mouths. Who knows what Dobbin and I could have gone on to achieve? We drove along the Ridgeway: a dirt track that was wet and a bit uneven. Reminded me of some of the easier driving I did in Malawi. The Beemer coped though. Every time I got out of the car mud seemed to fly at the soles of my shoes and firmly attach itself there. Even when I took the time to wipe it off with sticks, grass, gate posts, the small step between clean and mud caked was simply never far enough. Have some cleaning to do today. DW

Modern Britain: part infinite! As I was taking a walk into town the other day I suddenly noticed an area of pavement just outside our new Police Headquarters. It's fairly recently been dug up and repaired. Part of the pavement is a cycle path so there is a painted dividing line between pedestrian area and cycle path. Take a look at what the cheapskate company that dug up and then made the repairs has done. Of course, I had to dash out with camera in hand! Look at how they repainted the line: painting ONLY what they felt they needed to. Whatever happened to public spiritedness? The width of the gap between the two bits of new line painting is around half a meter (two feet for the wrinklies and crumblies among us!): hardly going to cost a vast fortune in paint and time is it? Thought you'd like to know that. It's amazing what you can do with digital photographs, too. These snaps were originally 320Kb EACH. With a bit of jiggery pokery, I get them down to 5 and 6Kb respectively ... of course, you can't see the orgy going on in the background now; but you wuldn't want to, would you? Would you? OK, email me and I'll send the unabridged versions! Just joking! DW

Saturday morning and it's another frosty start. The last two nights have been really frosty and this means that I can't mow my lawn. The lawn really needs a trim but I'm told that if you chop grass when it's frosty you could kill the stuff. Patience, patience, then! Do you know which country consumes more boxed chocolates than any other on earth? Go on have a guess. Alright I'll tell you: it's Russia. If you've ever been there and seen the locals dishing out boxes of chocs to each other you won't be surprised. 303 million kilogrammes of the stuff in 2001 with a value of around £870 million. Guess who PAYS the most for their boxed chocolates ... of course, WE do. The UK has the highest priced boxed chocolates, you will not be in the slightest surprised to hear: per capita expenditure on boxed chocolates reached £13.8 in 2001. That means we spent around £ 799,750,000 on boxed chocs in 2001. The UK really is a nation of chocoholics, with the largest chocolate consumption rate in Europe and a 30% share of the total European market in 2001. Even in the novelty sector, the smallest in the UK chocolate confectionery market, expenditure and consumption rates are higher than anywhere else in the world. Now, which country came second, do you think? The USA? China? The UK, even? You're in for a surprise as it's not even the supposedly amorous latin lovers: the French, the Italians or the Spaniards ... close though. It's Brazil with 168 million kg of the stuff. Brazil's the world's fifth largest producer of cocoa, too, by the way. Isn't it funny that boxes of chocs are being reported in kilogrammes? In case you're duff at arithmetic, 303 million kg = 303,000 tonnes. I got this chocolate info from Data Monitor. DW

Here's the follow up from O2, my mobile phone provider. I wrote the letter as mentioned below and lo and behold yesterday, Tuesday, without any phone call, letter or email message, they switched me back on. Another winner for British business. If there is any further follow up I'll let you know! Anybody want to call me now? I went to Cambridge on Saturday to see the kids, Daniel, Andrew and Fran: it was Andrew's umpteenth birthday and we had a great meal at the Chez Gerard restaurant in the city. Excellent food but the service was a bit slow. Luckily we weren't in a hurry so that didn't matter much. Had to remind Fran what a side plate was for as she plonked her baguette bits on the table as she tucked in! I am not known for my navigation skills when I am accompanied by someone but when I'm alone, as on Saturday, I can get to anywhere and back without a hitch. Well, almost. For some reason I can never leave Cambridge without taking a massive wrong turn first; and I did that on Saturday. No surpirse but just a frustrating waste of 20 mins or so as I get back on track. Otherwise, faultless. They didn't even throw me with the major snarl up about 10 miles out of Cambridge on the way in: I just picked a different route and snaked my way in from a different direction. There you go. Did I mention the brilliant PGTips television advert that I saw, involving a chicken trying on an LBD? Only seen it once so far but it had me in stitches: the rest of the family didn't see the joke for some reason. Odd that! Here's a thing: I need to do a massive email shot today/tomorrow and was dreading having to send them either one by one or with all the names visible in every message in every address line. Literally by accident I found that if you have Word as your email editor you can do a mail merge and have each message invididually crafted. Did you know that? Why didn't you tell me then? Am I the last to know? This Iraq nonsense is getting silly now. I'm not an expert and I'm not that interested in it but the level of debate on television and the radio here is dreadful. History will tell its own story but if historians rely on the output of the telly and the radio, some poor unfortunate children in the future are in for a shock! Toodle pip! DW

I got one of those dreadful letters that makes one wonder how some businesses survive. Remembering that I've been in Bosnia since last November and that I have been using my mobile phone in roaming mode for that period, I got a letter from my mobile phone provider, O2, BT as was. They began their letter with words to the effect of "Unfortunately, you are such a lousy bleeder that we have cut you off. Pay your bill immediately. Do it now." What has happened is that I have exceeded my limit, £200, by accident and even though I pay this bill by direct debit, meaning that it will AUTOMATICALLY be paid as per my agreement, they want their money NOW. If I have gone over the limit, I am sorry of course; but I wrote to Dominic Connolly, their Collections Manager, to say that I thought I was a long standing and valued customer rather than someone who should have bile vented on them. I also suggested that it might be a good thing for them that I had generated so much extra business for them with my trip and shouldn't they be happy about that rather than treating me like some pariah? In the old days, credit controllers (debt collectors) used to begin the process of collecting a debt by assuming that the current problem was due to an oversight and he was sure that the issue could be resolved nice and easily ... not now! Dominic couldn't even be bothered to tell me how much I should pay him NOW, either. DW

The past week has flown by as I've settled back in to life in good old England. I have come back to boost my vegetarian intake and so far have done well. Living for so long in a hotel is not good news so being back where I can shop and cook for my own grub is great! I increased my weight by around 4.5 kilogrammes in the final month or so of my stay in Bosnia: all because of living in a hotel. I have suffered such weight increases before when I've had extended stays in hotels. Not recommended! Austrian Airlines seems to like to hang on to me when I fly with them! This time, my journey with them was broken as their plane didn't make it back to Vienna until 2115 and I should have been in London by around that time. They blamed the weather at Heathrow for the delay; but when we did eventually get to Heathrow, conditions were suspiciously good. Apart from the first flight I had with Austrian, a couple of years agonow, I have yet to have a trouble free trip: they seem incapable of connecting two flights together according to their schedule. Moreover, on arrival at Sarajevo airport, I was told at check in that I was booked on the Vienna - Heathrow leg of my flight but nor for the Sarajevo - Vienna flight. The check in chappie checked and told me someone had cancelled my booking. Fortunately, the flight was not full so I travelled without a hitch ... apart from the delay at Vienna. The weather has been lovely here, too. Yesterday, for example, I went for a walk into town, the long way round, and spent an hour in crisp but gloriously sunny conditions. Normally, such ramblings are the kiss of death but the forecast is for more of such weather. So, well done! I have been walking around every day, too: at least 40 minutes a day in long, straight lines: to keep body and sould together in as strong a way as possible. Must be good for me! I came across a recipe for pancakes with cinnamon apples and made them: delicious. Really simple to make and they suit veggie and non veggie alike. I got the recipe from Waitrose. This link looks as if it's temporary; but I think the recipe will be on the site somewhere for a long time. Click here to go directly to the recipe. You don't need the toffee sauce you'll find in the recipe: just use jam or even icing sugar to give it a touch more sweetness; but even then, you don't need the extra calories. In case you're not from the UK and don't know what a Bramley apple is, it's a cooking apple as opposed to an eating apple: completely different texture and taste to an ordinary eating apple. DW

The street sweepers here in Sarajevo need to be trained! When it snows and is icy, someone spreads grit and sand all over the footpaths ... the street sweepers come along and sweep it all away! Let me be kind and assume they are recycling it. Still, they could reorganise it for a while to prevent clots like me slipping all over the place!! All being well I am leaving for the UK shortly: looking at the weather en route and in the UK has me concerned, however. I'll be back on line very shortly. DW

Vicki wrote back to say: Ah ha! I just re-read my assignment booklet and you are completely correct, it says that it is to be assumed 20% of the selling price. You are a genius!!! Thanks for your help Vicki My pleasure! DW