Department of Accounting and Finance

AG208: Intermediate Management Accounting

ASSIGNMENT
Due by 12noon, Thursday 21st March 2013
The assessed work submitted must be entirely your own work.
The
suggested length is 2,000 words. This does not include tables, footnotes
and/or references. Please indicate the actual word length at the end of your
assignment.
Ensure that you have an electronic copy available for inspection if requested.
Your printed output along with the Department of Accounting and Finance
Assignment and Marking Form attached to the front is to be handed into the
Departmental Office.
Late submission without due cause will result in the usual Faculty penalties.
This assignment contributes 15% to the final mark for this course
Richard Grey
____________________________________________________________________________________

A Conversation
Stan and Lee are both working on an exciting Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
between Glasgow NHS Health Board and Health Care Specialist plc. The plan is to
build a private health care centre in a currently unused and abandoned plot of land.
This would generate at least 450 new jobs and would provide day surgery services
when the NHS waiting lists were full. However, the balance of the centres revenue
would come from private health care customers paying for both day surgery and
more complex medical procedures requiring one or more nights stay.
Stan (CIMA qualified) is the newly appointed senior accountant for Health Care
Specialist plc. Previously he worked for a manufacturing company where a large part
of his role was cost accounting which included researching cost drivers and
accurately accounting for the unit costs of the products.
Lee (CIPFA qualified) is on the accounting team for Glasgow NHS Health Board.
They are currently trying to draft an initial budget for the charges for medical
treatments which Health Care Specialist plc will provide to the NHS.
Lee thinks that Stans manufacturing background means that he cannot consider the
costing implications that the public-sector setting has on some costs.
Stan thinks that Lee is unable to truly consider what drives the costs of what is
mostly a private commercial entity.

REQUIRED
Compare and contrast the roles of the management accountant in both the
commercial and public sectors. Comment on any similarities/differences that you
think may occur in fulfilling such roles. Consider the above scenario and comment on
where you consider there are issues to be reconciled.
Two articles detailed below are essential reading though your discussion must be
supported by explicit reference to at least two other relevant journal articles. All
references must be clearly cited and appropriately listed in the reference list at the
end of your work.
Required Reading (available on Myplace)
Lambert, V., and Lapsley, I. (2006) Redefining the Boundaries of Public Sector
Accounting Research? The Irish Accounting Review, Vol. 13, pp. 85-105.
The NHS is about care, not markets. Guardian article 3/9/2009

Other recommended journals include: Management Accounting Research; Journal of

Management Accounting Research; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
Journal; Accounting, Organisations and Society; British Accounting Review;
Accounting Forum; European Accounting Review; Finance Accountability and
Management; Harvard Business Review.

The marking scheme for this essay will be as follows

Describing the issues involved

Understanding of the two
roles

Poor

Excellent

Understanding of literature

Poor

Excellent

Evaluation of literature

Poor

Excellent

Critical Stance

Unquestioning

Highly Critical

General Issues
General Structure
Evidence of extra research

Poor
None

Excellent
Significant
amount

Presentation

Poor

Excellent

Quality of English

Poor

Excellent