Group chaired by World Bank, IMF and OECD makes paper available for public comment until April 30, 2014
WASHINGTON, January 28, 2014 – Intent on making governments more accountable for their performance and to provide financial stakeholders with more transparent information, a global consultation paper concerning “The Future Governance of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board” (IPSASB) is now available until April 30 for public comments.
The paper, about potential reforms to the governance and oversight of the IPSASB, is the product of a review chaired by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Review Group members also include representatives from the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). Eurostat and IFAC are serving as observers to the governance review. The IPSASB Governance Review Group was formed to propose future governance and oversight arrangements for the IPSASB.
The recent financial crisis revealed substantial shortcomings in financial reporting practices in the public sector underscoring the importance of comprehensive, reliable, and timely financial reporting by governments. Establishing and disseminating high quality accounting standards for the public sector are critical to bringing about this change towards more fiscal transparency.
International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) are intended to improve the quality of government financial reporting. For the last 15 years, IPSASB has developed and disseminated a comprehensive suite of standards and guidance materials. Notwithstanding their efforts, adoption of IPSASs by national governments remains low. Consultation exercises, such as the ones recently undertaken by the Monitoring Group (MG) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Eurostat, found that concerns about the governance and oversight of the IPSASB are some of the reasons cited by national authorities for not adopting IPSASs.
All comments should be sent directly to the OECD website.
