2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：乐购财务危机

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2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。
    Tesco's accounting problems
        乐购财务危机
    Not so funny
    不那么有趣
    Booking revenues, like comedy, is all about timing
    预估收益和喜剧一样，把握时机很重要
    IT IS too soon to say whether the accountingmisstatement at Tesco was cock-up or conspiracy.The source of the discrepancy is already clear, however, and it is as old as book-keeping itself:the premature recognition of revenue.
    乐购财务造假是偶然还是蓄意目前还言之尚早。然而这种差异的来源已经很清楚了，它发生在记账阶段：过早地确认了收入。
    Suppliers make payments to supermarkets that meet certain sales targets for their products,run promotions or place the goods in eye-catching places, such as at the end of aisles. Tescomanagers appear to have been too ambitious in forecasting these “rebates”. They may alsohave underreported the costs of stolen and out-of-date produce.
    若超市达到一定的产品销售目标，举办促销活动，或是将货物摆放在醒目之处，比如超市过道的两端，供应商会支付给超市一定的费用。乐购的管理层似乎过于高估了这些“回扣”的价值，当然他们也可能是低估了被盗物品和过期物品的成本。
    In a study of accounting scandals at American companies by the Committee of SponsoringOrganisations, a business-ethics body, the misrecording of revenues was to blame in 60% ofcases. Manipulation generally falls into one of two categories. In the first, involving “timingdifferences”, the revenue is genuine but, say, sales at the start of a quarter are booked ashaving been struck in the previous one. The flipside of this is “cookie jar” accounting: pushingtoday's revenue into tomorrow so it can be dipped into to shore up weak quarters.
    据企业伦理机构发起人委员会的研究称，美国公司60%的会计丑闻要归结于谎报收益。操纵行为一般可分为两类。第一种情况涉及到“时差”，收益是真实的，但是季度初始的销售额被列入上一个季度入账。与之相对的是“饼干罐”记账：将当前收益推至将来，以此推高疲软季度的销售额。
    In the second, more serious category, the sales are fake: often, a related party poses as acustomer to generate phoney invoices. Examples include Gowex, a Spanish technology firmthat folded earlier this year, and Satyam Computer of India, whose boss compared theescalation of the $1.5 billion fraud to riding a tiger that was ever harder to dismount withoutbeing eaten.
    更严重的是第二类情况，即销售额都是假的：通常情况下，业务关联方会装扮成顾客以产生虚假发票。西班牙科技公司Gowex今年早些时候便是因此破产，而印度萨蒂扬软件公司老板身陷15亿美元的诈骗升级案，时局愈发艰难，真真是骑虎难下，无法全身而退。
    Working out how much revenue to book and when can be a matter of fine judgment. It isespecially tricky in long-term contracts, such as in construction, or when the sale of goods isbundled with a service agreement, as with photocopiers. In a sign of how complex an area thisis, only this year—after more than a decade of talks—did European and American standard-setters agree on a common approach to revenue recognition.
    应记多少收益以及何时记收益都需要准确的判断力。这在长期合同中尤为棘手，比如建筑合同，或是所售商品捆绑的服务合同。有一个迹象可以表明这个领域到底有多么复杂：经过十多年的讨论，直到今年，欧洲和美国的会计准则制定者方才达成一个确认收益的通用办法。
    The complexity of Tesco's promotional deals with suppliers may also have left much room fordiscretion, and honest mistakes, as well as deliberate distortions. But the risks aroundaccounting for such payments are hardly new. The auditors of several big retailers haveamplified their warnings in recent years as rebates have taken up more space on balance-sheets. In its most recent report, in May, Tesco's auditor, PwC, warned of the “risk ofmanipulation”.
    乐购与供应商间复杂的促销协定可能也给酌情权，无心之过，以及蓄意歪曲留下很大空间。但在财务上此类支付风险已不是什么新鲜事物。由于回扣在资产负债表中占据越来越大的比重，几个大型零售商的审计机构近年来已提升警告级别。乐购的审计机构普华永道在5月份最新的报告中已警告其注意“操纵风险”。
    If Tesco's books turn out to have been deliberately cooked, it would be the biggest fraud ofits type in retailing since the scandal at US Foodservice in 2000-03. Several executives werefined or jailed for creating bogus rebates to boost profits and bonuses—complete with secretside agreements, in which suppliers agreed not to collect the exaggerated rebates. The Dutchparent company, Royal Ahold, settled with shareholders for $1.1 billion. Even if there was nofraudulent intent and the problems stem from a misunderstanding of the rules rather thanknowing misapplication, the apparent scale of the error suggests that, at the very least,Tesco's internal controls need a thorough overhaul.
    如果乐购被证实是蓄意加工账表，这将是自2000-2003年美国餐饮业丑闻后零售业最大的欺诈骗局。数名高管已因编造虚假回扣以提高利润和奖金的行为被处以罚款或监禁—他们与秘密方签订协议，其中供应商同意不收取超额回扣。位于荷兰的皇家阿霍德总公司为其股东的诉讼花费了11亿美元。即使公司没有欺诈意图，或是由于误解准则产生问题，并非明知不可为而为之，这份过失的显著规模最起码表明乐购的内部控制需要彻底整改了。