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In the last decade the Agricultural and Food Research Service has been transformed as resources are concentrated in fewer large institutes. This paper presents the new dispositions with a brief commentary on their evolution.

This is an in‐depth case study using a grounded theory approach to explore managers’ views of ABC as part of the control system in an insurance company. Relevant issues are allowed to emerge from the data rather than imposing a theoretical framework upon them. Hypotheses are derived rather than confirmed. Issues emerging from this case study include: the relevance of ABC to managers, increased cost awareness coupled with the problem of taking qualitative factors into account, and the existence of different perceptions of managers within the same department. One hypothesis is how an understanding of ABC can affect job satisfaction by influencing the impact of ABC on managers’ actions. In this case study process and non‐process managers had different levels of understanding and use of ABC information. A second hypothesis is that how managers view ABC information depends on whether they adopt a personal or an organisational perspective.

The study was designed to examine specific issues relating to the usage and perceived success of activity‐based and traditional costing systems. Data were collected from management accountants operating at senior management level in large companies in manufacturing, financial services and other non‐manufacturing sectors.

An external management audit is an independent examination of an organisation resulting in a statement to external users on the performance of the management function. The reasons for conducting external management audits (including accountability for corporate behaviour) are discussed. Bankers were chosen as one of several external user groups with a possible interest in such audit reports and a postal questionnaire was sent to a sample of 466 bankers with a response rate of 63 per cent. The objective of this survey was to determine whether or not the bankers would express any demand for external management audits and, if so, what information they would choose to have included in such reports. This survey revealed strong support from the bankers for external management audit reports and the bankers would like these reports to include assessments both of the general management function and of certain individual business functions.

PurposeTo explore whether there is an audit expectations gap in the public sector between the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) auditors in Bangladesh and the users of the CAG reports namely the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament that examines the CAG audit reports and the international funding agencies (IFAs) that provide external funding in the public sector in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe perceptions of CAG auditors and users of their reports were explored using a questionnaire based on a theoretical framework of accountability and six related audit concepts.FindingsThere were statistically significant differences in perceptions between 17 CAG auditors and the 15 members of the PAC on 13 of the 25 variables and between these 17 CAG auditors and nine representatives of the IFAs on 14 of these variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe relatively small number of respondents to this questionnaire is a limitation of this research project.Practical implicationsBetter training for the CAG auditors into their report users' information requirements and expectations and better training for the members of the PAC and the representatives of the IFAs coupled with more cooperation between the CAG auditors, the PAC and the IFAs might help to reduce this audit expectations gap in the public sector in Bangladesh.Originality/valueThis is the first time that statistical evidence has confirmed the existence of an audit expectations gap between CAG auditors and users of their audit reports in the context of the public sector.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

An external management audit is an independent examination of an organization resulting in a statement to external users on the performance of the management function. A simulated corporate overdraft decision was posted to 354 bankers with three groups of 118 bankers receiving the same package of information but with different audit reports namely a financial audit report only, a favourable management audit report and an adverse management audit report. The response rate was 58 per cent (205 respondents). Conclusion overall that the bankers′ overdraft decisions were statistically significantly related to the addition of an adverse management audit report. The reasons given by the bankers for their corporate overdraft decisions also suggest that bankers would be interested in and would use external management audit reports.

Legumes have worldwide improtance Nigel Lambert PhD and Roger Fenwick PhD write about and organisation which has been set up to improve these protain rich foods

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Reports research results which were presented to the Working Party of the Auditing Practices Board, which developed Statement of Auditing Standards 600 on the expansion of the audit report. Provides a brief discussion of the working party’s reception of the research. Results revealed that, with the short audit report used in the UK until September 1993, a gap existed between auditors and users with 14 of the 18 audit dimensions having statistically significant differences. An expanded audit report (a British version of SAS 58 constructed by the authors) changed users’ perceptions although ten of these 18 dimensions still had statistically significant differences between the users and the auditors. Expansion of the audit report is only a partial “solution” and needs to be combined with other measures, such as changing audit activities. An analysis of the dimensions for which users’ perceptions of the audit are enhanced shows that expansion of the audit report allows the audit profession to enhance its status without any change in actual audit activities or auditor accountability.