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The audit of projects financed from European Structural Funds is a requirement expressly stipulated underfinancing contracts and supposes a series of activities, such as: the analysis and verification of the nature, legality, accuracy and eligibility of expenses; the verification of using the amounts received in advance; the audit of third parties’ accounts; the comparison of the expenses with specially assigned accounts and the project budget; the verification of project incomes (inclusively of the advances received from the financer, interests to theadvances and other incomes generated by the project), etc.Understanding the entity and its environment, inclusively its internal control proves to be an essential elementin the diligent approach of the audit that should be followed by the understanding of the project financed fromEuropean Structural Funds and especially of its finality.The application of the procedures imposed by the international audit standards shall not fully eliminate theaudit risk and especially the risk of fraud and errors. The auditors have used as a research method both the theoreticalapproach and the empiric research. In the theoretical approach have been analyzed the notions of audit risk, fraud anderrors in accordance with the applicable legislation, and empiric because certain fraud cases frequently encounteredin the development of project financed from European Structural Funds in Romania are presented.

The changes occurred in the banking marketing in our country have their origin, firstly, in the changes of the organisational culture which has evolved in the last ten years from the bureaucratic behaviour, categorised excessively, to a specific behaviour for the market economy, based on the knowledge of the clients, on the competition and on the promotion of the mentality of a winner. The organisational culture can be changed in time, as long as the employees are aware of the objectives followed, as long as they are selected and promoted in conformity with these objectives and as long as the feeling of belonging to the organisation has formed which depends essentially on the satisfaction that the employee feels towards the activity he/she enrols. Due to the stimulation of the own personnel, the banks, through superior wages as for the best paid sectors of the national economy, have managed to attract the interest of the existing professionals, as well as of the young specialists willing to dedicate to a banking carrier. The training programs organised through the means of the Romanian Banking Institute or through distinct programs organised by the baking companies in our country have contributed to the motivation of the personnel, as well as to the consolidation of the new organisational culture.

Professional bodies with responsibility in regulating the accounting profession in Romania, with a vast experience in the field, such as Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants from Romania, the Chamber of Financial Auditors from Romania, Chamber of Financial Consultants from Romania, National Association of Certified Evaluators from Romania, are intensively cooperating with international bodies in order to develop accounting profession and support the accountants in providing high quality services to the public. Cooperation of the professional bodies involved in the regulation of the accounting profession has one fundamental objective: development of a strong accounting profession, able to serve the public interest, spread information and recommendations among its members, as well as providing services of the highest professional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the microeconomic level, the research and development costs are included in a broader category known as "discretionary costs", i.e. they are not mandatory and occur as a result of managerial decisions. At the macroeconomic level, research and development spending stimulates innovation and contributes in this way to increase and diversify production, performance, productivity and economic efficiency. The Europe 2020 Strategy, based on the role of research and development expenses in the current period, has set a target on medium term for such expenditures: to rise up to 3% of GDP in the EU for 2020. The source of funding for research and development expenditures may be: state budget allocations to the government sector and higher education institutions and private funds allocated by corporate or nonprofit organizations. Our study aims to rank the impact of research activities undertaken by the government sector, higher education institutions and the private sector by GDP and gross private domestic investment and identify the most appropriate measures for achieving the Europe 2020 goals by Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the microeconomic level, the research and development costs are included in a broader category known as "discretionary costs", i.e. they are not mandatory and occur as a result of managerial decisions. At the macroeconomic level, research and development spending stimulates innovation and contributes in this way to increase and diversify production, performance, productivity and economic efficiency. The Europe 2020 Strategy, based on the role of research and development expenses in the current period, has set a target on medium term for such expenditures: to rise up to 3% of GDP in the EU for 2020. The source of funding for research and development expenditures may be: state budget allocations to the government sector and higher education institutions and private funds allocated by corporate or nonprofit organizations. Our study aims to rank the impact of research activities undertaken by the government sector, higher education institutions and the private sector by GDP and gross private domestic investment and identify the most appropriate measures for achieving the Europe 2020 goals by Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Romanian economy, after 1990, has undergone a comprehensive restructuring process from centrally planned economy to an economy governed by the rules of the market economy, rules of the game led to a competitive type economy, with winners and laggards, with winners and losers. In the first phase, the restructuring of the Romanian enterprises has known just the division into two or more independent entities. Subsequently, according to the model of Western economies, the economic entities in our country during the process of restructuring and reorganization adopted a second way, namely the merger with its two versions: the merger by absorption and merger by fusion. The permanent struggle to maintain the market segments owned or even more to conquer other market segments as well as tax regulations adopted by our country led to the insolvency of a large number of businesses. Recent regulations bring some new administrative and foremost procedures to prevent insolvency. Thus, borrowers in financial difficulty are able to choose one of the following procedures: ad-hoc mandate and the preventive arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History has provided sufficient evidence that economic activity does not grow linearly and economic cycles can be easily distinguished, in which periods of growth are followed by periods of recession, stagnation, rising unemployment and widening budget deficits. Cyclical evolution impact on macroeconomic equilibrium requires us to move to a multiannual approach to budget balance and think about adjustments for the fiscal policy mix over the economic cycle, i.e. to pursue higher deficits in periods of recession as a result of tax incentives and some public investment expenditures absolutely necessary to resume growth and the deficits and public debt accumulated will be reduced in further periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business environment requires credit institutions to build up a network of branches, agencies and offices covering all areas of the country and allow an active partnership and direct involvement in mobilizing savings temporarily available and placing them under conditions of high efficiency and minimum risk. There were times when the territorial network of credit institutions has expended noticeably from year to year, but since 2010 the reflux time has come and many agencies and branches of credit institutions had been closed. In one case or another, selection criteria is required and the assessment of past, present and future performance is needed. The economic, financial, commercial, social and ethical criteria are discussed in this study, meant to offer a better understanding of how to prioritize the territorial components developed by credit institutions. From an economic perspective, the main criterion is the efficiency of each territorial component embodied in productivity, profitability and profitability indicators. From a financial standpoint, the hierarchy of territorial network has as the main criteria the quality of assets (embodied in the overall risk ratio, the share of overdue and doubtful loans, provision coverage ratio and coverage ratio of non-performing loans and investments) and liquidity (embodied in the liquidity indicator, immediate liquidity and credits - deposits report). In terms of trade, market studies are considered so to reveal potential opportunities of the area versus bank's possibilities, banking services rate of coverage in the territory, complex marketing strategies and policies, human resources, regional development etc. Ethical and social coordinates also prove to be important in the design of banks' territorial network as they can give a better image to the credit institution and can turn into an important pillar for bank's credibility, which are both indicators difficult to measure but very important to encourage the performance of credit institutions. Performance evaluation and ranking of subunits that are part of the territorial network and represent a vision of creating profit centers can make an important contribution to motivate staff and increase the overall performance of the credit institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of complexity and extent, the development of companies changed in time the procedure of exhaustive examination of all registrations of the audited company into a procedure void of economic efficacy. Auditors deemed it necessary that the opinion upon the accuracy of financial statements should be expressed based on the examination of a part of the registrations and transactions - registrations and transactions selected by specific procedures. Not all audit tests are performed based on a sample and the decision whether to take samples or not should be a clear decision. The acceptance of certain uncertainties was justified by the disproportion between the costs related to the examination of all transactions and the significantly more reduced registrations and costs generated by the examination of one part of the transactions and book registrations. ISA 530 "Audit sampling and other test methods" establishes and offers recommendations upon the use of audit sampling and of other methods of selecting testing elements in order to plan the audit procedures and to collect audit samples. Within audit procedures, sampling is the procedure applied by the auditor further to carrying out: • the risk assessment procedures using ISA 315 "Understanding the entity and its environment and the assessment of material misstatements risks" • tests upon contracts by using ISA 330 "Procedures of the auditor as a response to assessed risks". • the professional reasoning of the auditor incorporating the accumulated experience. The fulfillment of the previous stages enables the auditor to choose the suitable methods of selecting the test elements that shall supply proper and sufficient audit samples to issue the opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international financial crisis started in 2007 brought to the fore the fragility of the banking system, for which the axiom "When confidence was gone, the crisis arose", coupled with an acute need to rebuild public confidence in the banking system in general, refers directly to the commands of social responsibility and promotion of ethical values. Because they were too much concerned with the performance indicators, notably the profitability, but also with the level of their salaries, incentives, compensations, bonuses, special pension rights, the management of the banks with problems have ignored their obligations in terms of social responsibility, considered they are "too big to fail" and flagrantly violated ethical values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern economies under the impact of globalization have created an opportunity for investors to set up the various portfolios of financial assets (stocks, bonds, treasury bills, derivatives and other securities) diverse in terms of the structure, size and scale of the companies where investments have been made and a very diverse geographical area. This diversification has had considerable support from the development of technical instruments of transactions and of information technology, a general trend of market convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 27 member of the European Union benefit from the possibility to chose their own fiscal policy therefore there are 27 different fiscal systems in the European Union. The harmonization of the fiscal policies is a desideratum especially for the companies that activate in many states, considering that the harmonized fiscal systems will lead to a growth of the economic convergence and the erasing of discrepancies at continental level. On the other hand, the right fiscal policies can contribute to the encouragement of direct foreign investments, an increased competitiveness and a better allocation of resources. The paper's purpose is an analysis of the fiscal policies having for starting point the progresses made in regard to the harmonization of the Europe fiscal systems and the impact the extreme differences of taxation have on the different types of taxes between the member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the audit process of the financial situations, the auditor has a great responsibility in detecting the significant falsifications of the information due to fraud. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the representative international structure of the accounting profession has elaborated the International Audit Standard 240 "The Auditor's responsibility to analyze the fraud in an audit of financial situations" which establishes the regulations and offers the recommendations concerning the procedures that must be applied by the auditor in order to detect the significant falsifications consequent to fraud which influences the fidelity of the information presented in the financial situation. The auditor can identify a falsification in the financial situations and in this case he must analysis if such a falsification can indicate a fraud and when such a clue exists, the auditor must analyze the implications of falsification in relation with other audit aspects, especially those related to the credibility of the leadership's declarations. The auditor's responsibilities are different in each country and the obligation to confidentiality can be evaded in certain situations through a legal status, law or court order. In some countries, the auditor is compelled to report the emergence of frauds to the authorities when the leadership and the management of the entity do not take corrective measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assuring the liquidity is the main preoccupation for the management of a banking and financial institution. Achievement and preservation of the optimal level of liquidity is a true touchstone for the bank managers because the lack of liquidity as well as the over liquidity generates either supplementary costs or lesser incomes. Management of the liquidity risk means a series of measures that may be grouped as this: - Supervision and involvement from the persons in charge of the leadership; - Risks' identification, evaluation and monitoring; - Control activities; - Monitoring activities; - Credible information systems. A higher complexity of the bank products and services, accompanied by an increase of the competitiveness and the enhanced interest of the economic agents and the population for making deposits as well as obtaining loan and credits, compels the banks to adopt a management of liquidity risk based mainly on prudence. A special importance is given nowadays to the correlation of resources maturity and bank placements, without ignoring the quality of the assets and guarantees accepted [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]