In the first quarter of the year, Nebid Company manufactured 7,000 units of finished goods. The cost accountant at Nebid had expected that the company would require 5 kilos of material as standard to produce each item of its finished goods. Nebid started the quarter with 7,000 kilos of material and ended it with 3,000 kilos in stock. During the quarter, it bought 28,000 kilos for 75,600. For the first quarter, the company had estimated standard costs at 2.50 per kilo.

REQUIRED:

(a) What was Nebid's efficiency variance for material in the first quarter? Show all calculations.

(b) What was Nebid's material price variance for the quarter assuming this is calculated based on the purchased amount? Show all calculations.

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(c) Provide at least two possible explanations for each of the variances you calculated in parts (a) and (b) above and identify which function in the organisation should be held accountable for the variances.