Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Summarise The Aspects Of Corporate Governance Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2311 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? INTRODUCTION The present stage of economic cycle we will see more companies to get delisted from ASX due to corporate failure and due breach of duty from director side. With amid fear from global recession Director must be worried that their duty will be scrutinised and they have to perform their duty with proper and intelligent manner. Australian Security exchange acknowledged the best governed companies and according to Australian Security Exchange company who lack in corporate governance or in performing director duties can collapse any time. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Summarise The Aspects Of Corporate Governance Finance Essay" essay for you Create order In this project Im summarising an aspect of corporate governance and legal provision which are necessary for the control of corporation. Here I will provide information about two companies which were listed with Australian security Exchange. One of the companies is Cazaly Resources Limited and other one is Clive peeters . Cazaly is still listed with Australian Security Exchange, but Clive peeters is now delisted due to corporate governance failure. Therefore we will summarise the aspect of corporate governance in this report and analysis the importance of director role their duties. COMPANY OVERVIEW https://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:epnu1WF9JrHSgM:https://www.cazalyresources.com.au/images/cazaly_resources.gif Cazaly Resources Limited is an Australian based diverse mineral resource company which was listed with Australian Security Exchange in October 2003. Company controls the large number of Gold, Iron ore, Uranium and base metals which are grounded in Western Australia. Cazaly Resources Limited in total control 1500 square kilometres of ground and successfully performing the project which they think will be significant in the future. According to Cazaly there company Key assets include; PARKER RANGE IRON ORE PILBARA IRON ORE WESTERN KALGOORLIE GOLD THERE POSITION IN ASX LISTED COMPANIES THERE MANAGEMENT TEAM AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE There Equity position in ASX listed companies There for according to Cazaly following the Corporate Governance is significant to achieve the objectives in future. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Corporate Governance does not have any legal term, but it describes the rule and practices put in place within the company to deal with its board of directors. The main aim of corporate governance is to ensure Board accountability towards its Shareholders and management accountability towards its directors. PREAMBLE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Incentives for board and management Economic monitoring within the company To encourage lower capital in company Resources can be used more effectively Cazaly resources limited are following good corporate governance wit in their company. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES RECOGNISE AND MANAGE RISK Cazaly resources limited are performing the principle of Recognise and manage risk in proper manner. Financial internal controls are managed in such a manner that company can cope with financial crisis in 2009. They are so strong from the point of view of their fund handling and performing it really well. Company has made Insurance such as: Worker Insurance Liability Insurance Travailing Insurance IT sector is also protected by backed up functions and can be solved by backed up files. LAY SOLID FOUNDATION FOR MANGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT Operational Management The company has such a project that if there is any problem the managing director is approachable at any time to solve the problem. Safety in standing items will be addressed by managing director to the board. This report is review by board of directors every year. Management is given the power to overcome any non profit making objectives and to make decision which will take company towards future benefits so that they can give their opinion to the directors about what future changes should be done to make Cazaly resources limited toward profit making company in future as well SAFEGUARD INTEGRITY IN FINANCIAL REPORTING Financial status of Cazaly resources is not complex; Equity funds have been raised and exploited for the project they are performing or project them will perform in future. With these funds they will perform the business development in future. The managing director monthly report includes details of monthly spends, companies actual spend to budget and show month end cash balance, Board handles all major projects and calculate their expenditure. Financial reporting should also give the clear picture of benefits being derived from current money making project and future money making projects. RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF SHAREHOLDER Cazaly resources limited says that the right of share holders are being the most important aspect of their company and directors are the one who are liable to answer the shareholders. Disclosures of balance sheet or future projects or market criteria are being address to shareholders by the board of directors. Directors are also giving the current market criteria and share market as share holders are depends upon the share of the company. MAKE TIMELY AND BALANCED DISCLOSURE Management in Cazaly resources limited make timely disclosure to board about the projects which are going on or about the market criteria, what changes showed is done to overcome the problem. Board has a duty to tell their stakeholder about the current situation of the company. STRUCTURE THE BOARD TO ADD VALUE In Cazaly resources limited the board has an effective composition and the discharge their duties in proper manner company director Mr David McMahon has adequate responsibility toward the company. He makes joint venture with other companies to make company pillars more solid. Mr Jones managing director operation is making such adequate role in company which is helping Cazaly resources limited to grow. He is the one who help Cazaly resources limited to get listed with Australian security exchange. PROMOTE ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING Cazaly resources limited have made such environment in the office that there management act with due care and responsibility and that their management should comply with law and work with in standard of law. The management of comply share trading rules in proper and respective codes of conduct. The best part of this company is that there is never a conflict between the management and the board of directors. Directors of this company are obliged in their judgement to be independent and they also ensure steps to be taken reasonable to ensure soundness to board of directors. REMUNERATE FAIRLY AND RESPONSIBLY Executive directors receive fixed remuneration such as salary, even superannuation are given to directors. Board set the salary for management within the aggregate limit approved by shareholders. Reward for performing work with time and well manner is also given to the management by the directors. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FAILURE Clive peeters was first listed with ASX in 22 /09/2005.Clive PEETERS is the company which got suspended from Australian Security Exchange On Wednesday 19th May, 2010 Steve Peteers was suspended from ASX due to fraud. COMPANY OVERVIEW See full size image Clive Peeters opened their first store in Melbourne in 2003 they where retailers in electrical and computers. After opening their store in Melbourne they opened their store in Brisbane and Sydney they were ash rival to JB HI FI and HARVEY NORMAN. Clive peeters stores carry more than 140 brands and having model of each product once they were having more than 20000 models in their store. The chairman of Clive Peeter was Mr Brain Pollock and Mr Greg Smith was appointed as managing director of the company. Company operates under two names Clive peters in Queensland, Sydney, and Melbourne, Victoria and in Western Australia as Rick Hart. The staff work for Clive Peeters was around 1300, and revenue of $535 million FY 2008. Success behind Clive Peeters is their innovation in products, commitment towards customers, customer satisfaction and growing brand recognition. Buying power of this company was very strong which was their biggest plus point. Their warehous es were located across whole Australia there for the delivery time was minimum. Their main business was building industries, Government, Education, Hospitality, Real Estate and many more. If we take their sales revenue it was $457.2 million in 2007 and gone up +17% in 2008 to $534 in 2008, and gross profit from $120.5 in year 2007 to $141 in year 2008. REASON BEHIND CLIVE PEETERS COLLAPES The reason behind collapse of Clive Peeters was its failure to cope up with corporate governance. In the year 2009 it was discovered that the Clive Peeters payroll manager, Sonya Causer has inflated company payroll expense falsely to her account. She had done this by using company online banking system. Sonya has stolen around $20million from company account and by that money she purchased 43 properties and 3 cars. Under ASX corporate governance Clive peeters failed the duty of corporate governance which was structure the board to add value Structure the board to add value means: Companies should have board of an effective composition, size and commitment to adequately discharge its responsibilities and duties. In this board was failed to cope the duties of there. As the fraud was done this should not done as directors should perform their duties well. Each principle of corporate governance is important in his on aspect. DUTIES OF DIRECTORS Directors have fiduciary relationship with their company and their management there for any fraud is being in company in any level director of the company is responsible for that. Directors has power to solve any problem related to management and company. The duties of directors come under sec 180-184 of corporation act and this sec also imposed to the officers of the company. Employees of the company also come under sec 182. SEC181 of directors duty GOOD FAITH AND PROPER PURPOSE The main aim of this duty is that director should follow the duty of their in good faith and in best interest of the company and proper purpose. With good faith directors should take into consideration that stake holders of the company which specially are share holders are dependent upon their good faith and company is working well due their good faith. Bribes should not be taken or given for the purpose to increase the profit of the company. SEC182 OF DIRECTORS DUTY IMPROPER USE OF POSITION This sec states that officers and employees should not take advantage of their position to gain profit. They should not take advantage of their lower rank officer or employees. Therefore it is very important that this duty should be performed by officer in proper and legalised manner. SEC183 OF DIRECTORS DUTY IMPROPER USE OF INFORMATION Directors should not use information against the company, as any important material of the company should not be given out to its competitors. Therefore it is important that companies should follow the proper criteria of this sec. SEC 180 OF DIRECTORS DUTY DUTIES OF CARE, SKILL AND DILIGENCE Directors should exercise the duty of care and diligence, this means that directors should in this sec 180(1) should be taken into consideration will performing the duty of care. If we take a case example of Daniel v Anderson of (1995) 37B NSWLR 438, this case makes it clear that directors should perform their duties in care and diligence. SEC 184 OF DIRECTORS DUTY DUTY TO PREVENT INSOLVENT TRADING By this we mean that director should not indulge with any traction if he thinks that company is going toward insolvency. Sec 588 says insolvent trading is against the ASX rule and the director of the company is liable for insolvent trading even if he knows the company will be liquidised at any stage. Unsecured creditors ask director of the company about the compensation for the damaged suffered by the company. And directors are liable for the civil penalty order pursuant to Pt 9.4 B or criminal offence under Sec 588 G(3)and director at time of insolvent trading is liable for penalty. Clive Peeters case comes under section 182 of directors duty In this Clive Peeters manager Sonya causer made a fraud of $20 million as she made improper use of her position, there for she is liable for the delisted of company from Australian Security Exchange. CASE REFERENCE IN REGAL HASTING LTD V GULLIVER In this case directors made use of their position to make profit from the company for there personal use there for it was a breach of the sec 182. Court in this suggested that directors or any officer working for the company cannot make profit from organisation for its personal use. MISUSE OF COMPANY FUNDS Even in Clive peeters case misuse of company funds was also there. In this director cannot use the company funds for their personal use, officer of the company cannot mix company funds with their own fund. But Sonya Causer mix the company fun with her own funds even she use the funds for her personal needs like purchasing of the property and cars. CASE REFERENCE: IN TOTEX-ADON PTY LTD V MARCO (1982) 1 ACLC 228 In this case directors uses the funds of company for their personal use and even mix company funds with their own funds. IN PAUL A DAVIES (AUST) PTY LTD V DAVIES [1983] 1 NSWLR 440 The directors makes fraud and use money for their own interest and from the company funds made assets for themself. CONCLUSION From this case study we have discussed the importance of corporate governance. Importance to learn lesson from both the companies why it is necessary to work according to the corporate governance. ASX rule and regulation should be followed to insure that company is going towards right path and direction. If we take Cazaly resources limited it is an Australian based company which work as company with all corporate governance acts and directors duties are also being followed by board of directors as well as the directors of the company, manager and officer perform their duties with good faith and due care which is necessary for a good corporate governance. In case of Clive peeters, one of the biggest retailing company was for Electronic and computers got liquidised due to improper communication. The corporate governance of the company lacked in many ways and breach of duty from manager was the main issue which lead the down fall of the company. One of the manager of Clive Peeters once said that Drop of price of product in Clive Peeters lead to drop of salary of management in the company.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Fate Vs Fate Essay - 1437 Words

Within this vast and chaotic universe, it is easy to wonder how much control one single human truly has over their own destiny. Is a person’s life dominated by a plethora of choices and consequences or is it already mapped out by a greater force? Humans have pondered this question since the time of the first ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia. Although it is still without a clear answer ages later, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey propose interesting insights into the role of fate and choice in the human experience. Neither the Odyssey nor The Epic of Gilgamesh gives a black or white answer to the question of human autonomy versus divine control. Instead, this paper will argue that both epics suggest that human life has important†¦show more content†¦It would be simple for Gilgamesh to accept this fact and live within the confines of his fate to die. However, he just cannot seem to accept his mortal fate, repeating the fact that, â€Å"The issue of my friend oppresses me†¦Am I not like him? Will I lie down never to get up again?† (Tablet X, 237-242). He sets out to do nothing but chase immortality. A man with much to lose, he leaves his vibrant life as â€Å"the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull† (Tablet I, 29) and goes on risky adventures, killing monsters and entering forests he is not supposed to enter. A couple times he gets near to attaining immortality, such as when Utanapishtim tests him to see if he can stay awake long enough to become immortal. However even the best efforts of the most powerful man in Uruk are futile and Gilgamesh remains mortal. As a result of his efforts to change his destiny, Gilgamesh is punished. He loses his closest companion, Enkidu. Thus, Gilgamesh is an example of a character with great promise who spends his life trying to change one of the few predetermined parts of his fate in vain. If even this man, who is one of the most powerful in his society and even slightly immortal does not have the power to change his fate to die, it is clear that no one else can. In fact, Gilgamesh gains nothing but heartache from his efforts to step outside the confines of his predetermined identity. Odysseus is another character with a predetermined identity. However, inShow MoreRelatedFate Vs Fate Essay1401 Words   |  6 Pagesthe Odyssey propose interesting insights into the role of fate and choice in the human experience. Neither the Odyssey nor The Epic of Gilgamesh gives a black or white answer to the question of human autonomy versus divine control. Instead, this paper will argue that both epics suggest that human life has important elements of both divine control and human autonomy. Once an individual is able to accept the more general parts of their fate that lay beyond their control such as their identity and theirRead MoreFate Vs Fate Essay1649 Words   |  7 PagesFate can be thought about as life being predetermined for the entirety of your days. From the early writings from Homer, specifically in the poem, The Iliad, there is a clear representation of whether it is free will or fate after all. Although we may never know whether there is a predetermined path or rather just free, it can only make one wonder. For most Greek Mythology, it is been evident that most of people’s decisions were not free will but rather fate itself. While people think they have freeRead MoreFate Vs Fate Essay 1781 Words   |  8 PagesFate can be thought as life being predetermined for the entirety of your days. From the early writings of Homer, specifically in the poem, The Iliad, there is a clear representation of whether it is free will or fate after all. Although we may never know whether there is a predetermined path or rather just free, it can only make one wonder. For most Greek Mythology, it is been evident that most of people’s decisions were not free will but rather fate itself. While people think they have free willRead More Fate vs. Freedom Essay1046 Words   |  5 Pages Fate may state what will be in ones life however, how that destiny comes about is a matter of mans own choice. In other words, incidents dont occur because our destinies are written. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare expertly uses the theme of fate vs. free will and raises the pre-eminent question of which holds power over the characters. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, fate is not the cause of his downfall, his own desires and choices prove to be the deciding factor. There are several examples ofRead MoreMacbeth Fate vs. Freewill Essay948 Words   |  4 PagesFate vs. Freewill In Shakespeare’s Tragedy Macbeth, it is very debatable if fate, or freewill is what causes Macbeth to do the things he does through out the tragedy. Freewill is at work most through out the tragedy because Macbeth is convinced he can change or speed up the fate the three weird sisters prophesized for him at his own will. Throughout the play, Macbeth slowly begins to think he can modify his fate by using the prophecies told to Macbeth by the weird sisters and attempting to changeRead MoreMacbeth: Fate vs Free Will Essay1208 Words   |  5 PagesFate vs Free Will is one of the most oft used literary techniques in writing. It is never more evident than in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The major theme of the story Macbeth is whether or not the story is fueled by the free will of Macbeth, or by his fate. Are the events in Macbeth a result of his mentality and outlook on life, or were they going to happen no matter what? Almost every major event that takes place can be traced back to this question. It can be viewed in different ways, and mostRead MoreMidsummer Nights Dream: Fate vs. Free Will Essay1208 Words   |  5 PagesMidsummer Nights Dream essay Throughout the play A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeare uses both fate and free will to present his philosophy towards the nature of love. The characters struggle through confusion and conflicts to be with the one they love. Although the course of their love did not go well, love ultimately triumphs over all at the end of the play. The chaos reaches a climax causing great disruption among the lovers. However, the turmoil is eventually resolved by PuckRead MoreFree Will vs. Fate in The Winters Tale Essay1645 Words   |  7 Pagesagainst Nature. She represents what was meant to be, what has been divinely decided. Even though they are father and daughter, they are complete opposites. Leontes represents our human ability to exercise free will, and Perdita represents the power of Fate over our lives. Early in the play, Leontes shows his own fallible nature. He reveals himself to be a jealous, self-doubting tyrant. He brings about the his own demise, curses his family and dooms his own child to death. Though these characteristicsRead MoreOedipus the King: Fate Vs Free Will Essay639 Words   |  3 Pages Oedipus the King, was written by Sophocles between C.A.496-406B.C. In this play, Oedipus is a great example of Sophocles’ belief that fate will control a man’s life no matter how much free will exists. Oedipus is a man of unflagging determination and perseverance, but one who must learn through the working out of a terrible prophecy that there are forces beyond any man’s conceptualization or control. Oedipus’ actions were determined before his birth, yet Oedipus’ actions are entirely determinedRead MoreFate vs. Free Will Julius Caesar Essay844 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Shakespeare there are two forces at work fate and freewill and throughout the play they are both fighting for control over man. Fate was shown in the many prophecies and omens that the characters viewed throughout the entire play. Free will as defined in the play is the ability to overcome fate. Although in the end all three of the characters succumbed to their fate, Shakespeare shows again that there is a delicate balance between fate and human free will. Of the three main characters

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Foreign Aid and the Development of African Nations Free Essays

The African Nations, particularly those lying in the Sub-Saharan region have been subject to poverty, inadequate financial resources of their respective governments, lack of proper infrastructure and essential services like health, sanitation and water supply. These countries have also long been plagued by corrupt leaders, who have no concern about the sufferings of their citizens, despite growing their personal wealth based on the countries’ natural resources and foreign aid. Despite billions of dollars of foreign aid pouring in the region by countries like the United States, U. We will write a custom essay sample on Foreign Aid and the Development of African Nations or any similar topic only for you Order Now   K. , Germany and Japan there is no tangible change in the development of these countries. This paper will discuss the role of foreign aid in the development of the African Countries. Though, the common perception among the people is that the sub-Saharan Africa receives fairly large amount of foreign aid, but there is no proper outcome of it. They often complain that most of aid given to the African governments is consumed in non-development expenditures, or either is directly deposited in the overseas accounts of the rulers. But the fact is that the amount of aid given to these countries is never enough, particularly when considered the amount of development work done. Another problem is the method of distribution of the foreign aid, as there is very little amount, which is directly handed over to the African governments for their projects. Most of the aid is either in the form of technical support in which most of the aid is used in paying the officials of the aid giving country in exchange of their services. For e. g. the United States, which is considered as a major ODA, provider in the region does not spend, as she should have and as much resources she has. Most of the foreign aid provided by the United States is either in response to catastrophes like famine, earthquakes and tsunamis etc. , or in the form of emergency relief, like the U. S. wheat supply in cases of shortage of food supplies due to draught in many African countries. (Sachs, 82) On the other hand the actual amount of Official Development Assistance is far below as it is thought by many Americans. It is simply because large portion of ODA is disbursed primarily to the strategic nations like Iraq and Afghanistan. The remaining amount left for the non-strategic countries is then distributed either via NGOs or in the form of technical expertise and services. In both cases none of the amount is directly handed over to the recipient government. Thus the leftover of the ODA, which is directly handed over to the aid recipient nations, is significantly low. The same is the case of most donor nations like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Italy etc. The amount of aid actually handed over to these governments, which may help them to practically implement the public development projects like hospitals, schools, water supply and sanitation etc. (Sachs, 82) According to the 2003 U. S. government statistics regarding the ODA given by the United States to the sub-Saharan Africa, the total amount given was $4. 7 billion only. The sad story is that out of this huge amount only $118 million were directly handed over to African governments in order to support public development programs run by the government and communities.  (Sachs, 83) Therefore the given statistics regarding the U. S. aid depicts the inadequate amount of direct aid given to the African nations. Now speaking about the output and consequences of the foreign aid in the development of sub-Saharan African nations, the results are not encouraging. Partly because of inadequate amount of aid, ineffective method of aid distribution and disbursement, corrupt governments and leaders the outcome is not overall satisfactory regarding virtually the entire sub-Saharan region. The United States and other donor countries can shed their burden by using the United Nations as a platform of foreign assistance to the sub-Saharan regions. (Tharoor) Kenya is a good example to analyze the role of foreign aid in the economic and public development of the country. Kenya had been among those countries, which have received huge external aid flows from the donor nations and institutions in order to foster economic growth and reduce poverty. But unfortunately the outcome has never been satisfactory as there is no major improvement in the economic growth of the country, neither there is any significant reduction in poverty or any tangible public development as an outcome of foreign aid. The country like other sub-Saharan African nations faces high indebtedness, unemployment and absolute poverty. The poor economic performance of the country has led to high dependency of Kenya on foreign aid. (Njeru, 1) The Kenyan development expenditures were slightly above 10% of the total government expenditures during the late 90s. This shows a development expenditure decline of about 50% from the 70s, which was just below 20% at that time. Due to poor economic performance the government development budget has increasingly become dependent on donors. For e. g. in the 80s only 40% of the development expenditure depended on foreign aid, while in the next debate the dependence had raised to 70%. (Njeru, 6) This increasing dependence was the result of poor performance and using the local government resources on non-development expenditures. Most of funds disbursed by the donors is either in the form of appropriations-in-aid or revenue, the most common of which is appropriations-in-aid method. Using this method the donors have direct contact with the project coordinator, but there is a drawback of this method as the government loses control of these projects there is a big chance that they may become white elephants. (Njeru, 9) On the other hand, under the revenue system the funds are disbursed directly to the Treasury via special accounts in the central bank, but here are some other risks, like misuse of the funds because of weak accounting system at the Treasury.  (Njeru, 9) During the post-independence period Kenya receive heavy inflow of foreign aid particularly from the British. In the 70s and 80s there were high development activities in telecommunication networks, land settlement schemes, health and education sectors. During the 80s Kenya had enjoyed the highest level of foreign aid flow and there were about 600 active development projects in the above-mentioned sectors. (The Role of Foreign Aid in Development, 37) The major setback in the initial development progress was brought by former president Kenyatta and his successor Daniel arap Moi, as they not only backtracked the on going progress by making some unsound decisions like price control, marketing boards which soon adversely affected the prices and production incentive. Import substitution was also an important drawback, which resulted in poor economic condition and forced the government to stall many public development projects. (Erixon, 14) Corruption is also an important factor, which has led to the wastage of large amount of foreign aid. According to the Transparency International’s index of corruption Kenya was among the 10 most corrupted countries. According to TI the incidence of corruption is about 50% in most ministries, city councils, parastatals, SOEs and other governing bodies. (Erixon, 14) President Kenyatta’s regime was plagued by his so-called land reforms in the name of which he received large amount of foreign aid and subsequently became the largest landowner in the country. His alleged favor to his tribesmen and kinsmen, the Kikuyu, also resulted in mass corruption and loss of large amount of donor’s money. Using foreign aid to support their own kindred has become a norm in the Kenyan politics. (Cohen, 7) Presidents Moi’s regime is also marked by misuse of foreign aid in favor of the relative and political supporters. For e. g. the Kenyan government received $873 million in official development assistance in the fiscal year of 1991/92. All this aid was either on grant basis or loan basis and supported some 654 public development projects. These projects have about 2,000 sub-components, in order to give every ethnic group a fair price of the fund. Not surprisingly a large amount of the fund and project resources were not used accordingly. (Cohen, 13) Moreover the public developments on district level were also done on ethnic and political basis, as those areas where the residents are either the tribesmen of the president or loyal to him will receive a large sum of budget and public development programs, while those who oppose him like the Kikuyu, the people of the former president Kenyatta receive marginal amount of budget and public development funds. (Cohen, 16-17) President Moi’s government and leadership have been marked with more corruption and use of foreign aid on their own behalf. According to a Guardian report, President Moi, his associates and relatives have allegedly moved more than 1 billion pounds of government money to nearly 30 countries including Britain. Other relatives who have been involved in corruption of millions of dollars government money include Moi’s sons, which have moved 384m and 550m pounds respectively. (Rice) This report clearly depicts how ruthlessly these corrupt leaders have looted their country and fellow countrymen. The same is the character of NGOs in this regard, as most of the NGOs working in Kenya have their loyalties with one of the political parties or ethnic groups and they only work in their interest. Moreover those NGOs which are honest to their mission and objective face constraints and suppression from the government and they are only allowed to work according to the interest of the government officials, and their interest is always to do a favor to their kinsmen or political allies. In this way the people in real and dire need are often neglected, only because they do not have enough political power or ethnic relation with the people in the office. Botswana is another case and a different story. The country has been the best example of good governance and leadership in the continent by far. It is the only country, which has been democratic in spiritually and practically throughout the entire post-independence period. The country has actively promoted the its’ citizens social and economic development throughout its post-colonial history. The country led by its founder Sir Seretse Khama and his successors were dedicated to deliberate democracy and market economy. Khama played an important role in developing a law-respecting political culture, which was wholeheartedly endured by his successors. (Rotberg) Though Botswana has received a heavy amount of foreign aid inflow the public development of the country in not based on that primarily. The main factor, which contributed in the country’s success, is its good governance and lack of corruption. According to Transparency International Botswana is the least corrupted country in the African continent far better than many European and Asian countries. (Williams) Botswana has shown its capability of utilizing the amount of donors’ funds. Botswana has the strongest state institutions, professional civil services, strong planning systems and centralized aid management systems. All these have helped the country to utilize the funds wisely and accordingly with the minimum loss and misuse possible. The effective use of aid effectively contributes to the project plans, but also gave the country more control over the aid. This is in contrast to Kenya where the foreign aid froze twice due to poor compliance of the Kenyan government to the conditions of the donors. (Renzio, Whitfield Bergamaschi, 1-4) After the independence Botswana was among the poorest countries of the world and there was lack of proper infrastructure and social and economic institutions. In the initial post-independence period the country has used large amount of foreign aid, but the leadership was wise enough to use the foreign assistance in proper way. The government also preferred grants to loans and used diversified donors and also made a habit of refusing to accept aid when not necessary. (Togo, 3) The government wisely used foreign aid in not only developing the public sector like health, transportation, sanitation and water supply, but also used the chance to invest the aid heavily in the diamond mining industry which later boosted the country’s economy and help Botswana to overcome her dependence on foreign aid. (Togo, 4) But in the 90s the situation has changed and the new generation of leaders have emerged which are not willing to follow the path of Khama. They have allegedly used the government funds as their personal possessions acting double as the directors of private funds thus reserving these funds for the projects run by their firms. Furthermore in 1992 the credibility and respect of the Botswana government was further tarnished by the notorious Housing Corporation scandal in which the Vice president and other high-ranking officials were allegedly involved. (Togo, 5) Despite all these downfalls and shortcomings emerging in the new general of politicians, the country is still the least corrupt as compared to other African nations. According to recent studies Botswana has received the highest level of foreign aid up to 1980s, which has played a significant role in the development of the country. The foreign assistance had been as high as $200 per capita in 1980s. But the studies show that aid has only played siginificant role in public development in the early years of independence, when the country relied completely on the British aid for its expenditures. But in the next decade the ratio of aid had declined sharply, and the revenue from diamond mining far exceeded the aid. In the late 80s the share of aid fell to 3% of GDP from 29% in 1967. Therefore foreign assistance played significant role in the first two decades of the country history. (Togo, 6) The founder president of Botswana made his priority to secondary education in order to increase the proportion of the natives in the countries civil service and other comprehensive development projects, like mine development, construction of dams and irrigation. The government wanted to provide the natives jobs and reduce poverty. Thus they used the foreign aid initially to promote education and then focused on the infrastructure like roads, electric power and water supply, which will become the basis of the mining industry. (Togo, 8) The government than acquired $2. 5 million loan from the World Bank to finance the Shashe complex diamond-mining project. The government also won technical assistance from several developed countries. The foreign assistance acquired was largely used in the development of the infrastructure of the Shashe Complex project. Then the aid was used for the development of the human and physical capital. (Togo, 8)Thus Botswana used foreign assistance for the development of the human capital by promoting education and physical capital by developing the infrastructure. In this way one can easily conclude that foreign assistance played an important role in the development of the country in the first two decades. But when the case of Botswana is compared with that of Kenya, it becomes clear that foreign aid is not the sole factor in the success of a country. In the last four decades Kenya has received more foreign assistance than Botswana, but the country never became economical strong as Botswana did. The primary reason was the different in the vision and approach of the rulers of the two countries. The Kenyan first two rulers have been among the most corrupted and autocratic type of rulers and they have no interest in the welfare of their fellow citizens. They ruthlessly used the countries resources as personal possessions. On the other hand the Botswana founder president Khama and his successors have been honest to their country and fellow citizens and wisely used their country’s resources as well as the foreign assistance they had received to develop their country’s economy, public sector institutions and infrastructure. Therefore foreign aid has never been the primary factor in any country’s development. How to cite Foreign Aid and the Development of African Nations, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Security of Information that is Stored into Computer Free Sample

Questions: 1.Search the Web for news on Computer Security Breaches that Occurred during September-December 2015. Research one such Reported Incident. Prepare a Report Focusing on what the Problem was, how and why it occurred and what are the Possible Solutions.2.Prepare a report focusing on the following questions: What was the problem? Who were affected and how? How was the attack carried out? What could have been done to prevent the attack? Answers: Introduction The computer security breach is most vulnerable thing for security of information that is stored into computer. The computer security breach is carried out in form of different attacks such as virus attack, DDoS attack, hacking and phishing attack etc. The main objective to make this report is to discuss computer security breach that were popular in news in 2015. Besides this, a popular case of hacking will also be discussed here that was happened between 2012 and 2016. 1.Discussion In 2015, the popular news was about computer security breach of OPM i.e. Office of Personnel Management. OPM serves as Human Resource department of federal government and by this agency, records are submitted to all federal government employees. Besides this, security clearances are also issued by OPM to federal government. Problem A massive security breach was carried out by hackers in December for targeting records of workers of OPM. These hackers were working for Chinese military unit. According to US officials this hack-attacked was launched from China, but Beijing considered this irresponsible claim. The OPM officials discovered that this computer security breach was an aggressive effort to upgrade the cyber security of OPM by using new tools. The information that is leaked in this security breach consists of records of training and performance reviews and job assignments of the employees. But in this stolen information, background checks and clearance investigations were not included. This computer security breach was biggest breach of US government employee data and it is also second big intrusion of OPM by China in 2015. In the report of iSight partners, it was mentioned that this breach can be linked to the same cyber-spying that was responsible for security breach of Anthem Company. On another side, F BI has its own views about this attack and according to them it is work of Chinese state-sponsored hackers. According to investigators report of this case, near about 21 million records were breached in this security breach and besides this, fingerprints of 5.6 million employees were also stolen (HackRead, 2017). Reason of Occurrence This problem was occurred by hack-attacked on OPMs database to collect its confidential information. According to different information sources, China is considered responsible for this breaching act and it is not first time that US officials are blaming China for this type of computer security breaches (Greene, 2017). The main purpose of hackers to get essential information of OPM officials and to use this hacked data for conducting spear-phishing emails to silly recipients who clicked on affected links or attachments and hackers can easily access their information from targeted computers through this action of those recipients. The effect of this hack-attacked was so much vulnerable and due to this, most of the OPM workers were affected. It was a matter of trust of OPM workers on this agency. So it is responsibility of management of OPM to implement possible solutions to protect its database and computers (Forbes.com, 2017). Potential Solutions for OPM Security Breach It is stated by officials of OPM agency that they are making plans to contact all the affected workers to provide them offer for free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for 18 months. Besides this, following possible solutions can be implemented to get protection from above discussed security issue (SearchSecurity, 2017). On the behalf of above collected information, first of all it is necessary for OPM to enhance its database security. If database will be secured properly then there will be very less chances that hacking problems will occur. The periodic scanning of database by using database scanning software such as McAfee, Oscanner etc. These software solutions are helpful enough to identify errors, bugs and entry of an unknown entity can be vulnerable for database. OPM security consultants should be aware about these solutions (com, 2017). The use of anti-virus in computer systems is also an effective way to control issues of security breaches. Anti-virus is useful for identifying virus into system and to fix it. The information that is stored into database should also be in encrypted format. Through encryption technique information can be stored into database in unreadable format that is harder for hackers to understand (Dark Reading, 2017). The database access should restricted for all employees or workers of OPM. Only authorized worker and administrator can access database if required (microsoft.com, 2017). In this way, if OPM will be careful about maintenance and security of computer systems and databases, then computer security breaches can be controlled. 2.Hacking is common word for every computer user and everybody knows about its impacts on their system, databases and networks. Several cases of hacking have encountered by IT users. Among these several cases, some cases have become so much popular. Now in this segment of report, we will discuss a popular hacking case that was carried out between 2012 and 2016. The selected case of hacking was happened in Dominos Pizza in 2014. Problem A hacking group of Rex Mundi held this hacking attack in Dominos Pizza to exchange over Belgian and French customer records. The total number records were 600,000. In this exchange of personal data of customers such as their names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and even information about their favorite Pizza toppings, Mundi demanded $40,000 from the fast-food chain. If this exchange was not met, then it is threatened by hackers to publish this information online. Dominos refused this exchange and also assured to its customers that their financial and backing information is still saved. The hacking group Rex Mundi had its Twitter account that is now suspended and data was also never revealed by hackers online. But it is hard to say that Dominos accepted deal of hackers or not (Inquirer, suspension, Latest, read, 2017). affected The customers of Dominos Pizza whose information was stored into database were highly affected due to this hacking attack. The personal information of customers was so confidential and they had given that to Dominos with trust. The most worried thing was that when hacking group threatened to company about online publishing of customers information. If information would have been leaked over internet then it could be misused by anyone. Besides customers, employees of company were also affected because some of their official information was also stored in companys database. This hacking attack was also vulnerable for reputation of company in market because after hack of huge amount of information, it was difficult for customers to trust Dominos again (Munson, 2017). the attack carried out This attack was carried by Rex Mundi hacking group by accessing database of Dominos Pizza in unauthorized way (Mail Online, 2017). To carry out this attack, hackers cracked database of Dominos Pizza and downloaded more than 600,000 records of dough-loving customers. The hacking group successfully cracked database of Dominos, it means there is lack of security in database system of this company (Curtis, 2017). The things that could have been done to prevent the attack After this hacking attack, Dominos suggested to its customers to change passwords after getting alert from companys side in a particular period of time (Motherboard, 2017). Even it is also better that always different password should be used by users while accessing any new website. The reason for this is, hackers always try same combination of username and password from one site to another to track your activities. If users will use unique password then it will be difficult for them to access website easily. Other possible solutions that could have been used by Dominos are listed as below (Moore, 2017): Prefer to use Database Scanning Tools Anti-Virus Installation into System Restricted and Authorized Access to Database (Healthcare IT News, 2017) Prefer to use Database Scanning Tools In appropriate monitoring of database, scanning tools help a lot. To identify any inappropriate action in database, Dominos could have been used database scanning tools such as Oscanner, Kaspersky, McAfee etc. Through these tools, whole scanning of database could be done to identify issue and to resolve those issues. The periodic database scanning helps to prevent database from virus and malware attacks. Anti-Virus Installation into System There is no doubt that anti-virus is a good solution to identify virus from database or computer system. It also performs complete scanning of database and computer and provide result in total number of virus exist into computer. Once we got to know about total number of viruses and their locations, we can make appropriate action to remove these viruses. So, this is also an effective way that could have been adapt by Dominos to get rid of problem of database cracking by hackers. Restricted and Authorized Access to Database The access of database should be very restricted, especially in cases where huge amount of data is stored into database like Dominos. It is responsibility of administrator to set authorized access for users and without permission no one should be allowed to access database. The reason for this is, sometimes an employee of company steals confidential information and can pass it to hackers or can help hackers to hack companys confidential information. In this case, tracking of every activity of every authorized person should be conducted by administrator and if in any case doubt occurs then must take strict action accordingly. The main problem in hacking case of Dominos Pizza is that security parameters and policies were not implemented properly. If above listed solutions will be implemented by this company then chances of hacking attacks will be reduced Conclusion After this whole discussion we conclude that the maintenance of security and privacy of information is job of security experts who have better knowledge that how data can be remained more secured in databases. So they should suggest management to implement these solutions quickly. They should aware employees of company about bad impacts of hacking attacks and computer security breaches and also order them to use all suggested security tools and techniques. The support of companys management is also required. If we want to use databases, computer systems and network solutions at our workplaces then our first priority should be security and privacy of information that will be stored and transferred through these tools References Curtis, S. (2017). Domino's Pizza hackers demand 24k ransom. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10902321/Dominos-customer-details-held-to-random-by-hackers.html Dark Reading. (2017). Attacks Breaches News, Analysis, Discussion, Community - Dark Reading. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches.asp Forbes.com.(2017). The Top 5 Most Brutal Cyber Attacks Of 2014 So Far. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2014/07/28/the-top-5-most-brutal-cyber-attacks-of-2014-so-far/#7bd28e9134da Greene, T. (2017). Biggest data breaches of 2015. Network World. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.networkworld.com/article/3011103/security/biggest-data-breaches-of-2015.html Huffingtonpost.com. (2017). Security Breach. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/security-breach/ HackRead. (2017). Top 15 Cyber Attacks and Security Breaches in 2015. (2017). Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.hackread.com/top-15-cyber-attacks-security-breaches-in-2015/ Healthcare IT News. (2017). 2015 healthcare security breaches. (2017). Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/slideshow/2015-healthcare-security-breaches-long-list Inquirer, T., suspension, D., Latest, I., read, M. (2017). Domino's hackers fail to release customer data following Twitter suspension | TheINQUIRER. https://www.theinquirer.net. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2350198/hackers-demand-domino-s-pizza-delivery-of-eur30-000-to-prevent-customer-data-leak Munson, L. (2017). Dominos Pizza hacked, customer database held to ransom. Naked Security. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/06/16/dominos-pizza-hacked-customer-database-held-to-ransom/ Moore, M. (2017). Domino's Pizza WARNING - why customers should change their passwords NOW. Express.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/744453/dominos-pizza-change-password-warning-customer-phishing Motherboard. (2017). Bug in Domino's Pizza App Allowed Hackers to Get Free Pizza for Life. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bug-in-dominos-pizza-app-allowed-hackers-to-get-free-pizza-for-life Mail Online. 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