As a newly employed management accountant of Difficult Times Limited, you have been assigned the task of assessing the performance of a division within the company. The division, which is a major production centre, uses standard absorption costing for product costing and stock valuation purposes. The cost card for the product line where you intend to start your assessment shows the following data: Quantity E 10 kgs 105 30 minutes 15 Direct materials Direct labour -Category A Category B Variable overheads 45 minutes 9 20% of material 21 Fixed overheads (note) 30 minutes @ E12 per hour 6 Standard absorption cost 156 Note: Fixed production overheads are absorbed on the basis of standard time allowed for Category A labour. The monthly budget for Category A labour was 2,500 hours. In the most recent month, 4,977 units were made at the following costs: E Direct materials - Purchased 55,000 kgs 555,600 Used 52,350 kgs 2,610 hours 77,648 3,730 hours 45,000 Direct labour - Category A - Category B Variable overheads Fixed overheads 114.925 29,055 (a) Required: Calculate the following variances: (i) Direct materials price and usage. (ii) Direct labour rate and efficiency variance for both categories of labour. (iii) Variable overheads expenditure and efficiency variance. (iv) Fixed overheads expenditure and production volume variance. (b) Briefly comment on the information provided about the department's performance by the variance analysis