South Africa becomes the first country to say it will
base its public sector accounting practices on the International
Federation of Accountants’ public sector accounting standards
(IPSASs). As support for the standards rises—the Organisation for
Economic Development and Cooperation is basing its 2001 financial
statements on them—IFAC’s public sector committee aims to complete a
core set of accounting standards by the end of this year. To that end,
IFAC releases four new IPSASs— Revenue from Exchange Transactions,
Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies, Construction
Contracts and Inventories— and two new exposure drafts—
Related Party Disclosures and Provisions, Contingent Liabilities
and Contingent Assets, comments on which are due November 30 (
www.ifac.org/news/LastestReleases.tmpl?NID=9954690712-139
).
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)
announces its first agenda of technical projects. Four of
them—accounting for insurance contracts, business combinations,
performance reporting and accounting for share-based payments—focus on
the board’s primary mission of promoting harmonization of
international and national accounting standards. The remaining
projects aim to improve or simplify the application of international
financial reporting standards (for example, amendments to IAS no. 39,
Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement ) (
www.iasb.org.uk/cmt/0001.asp?s=100171060&sc={061D406-D-90D4-11D5-BE6A-
003048110251}&n=3314 ).
Two new publications from the Information Technology
Governance Institute, prepared with assistance from the International
Federation of Accountants, examine IT-related risks and issues. Titled
Board Briefing on IT Governance and Information
Security Governance for Boards of Directors and Executive
Management, they explain, respectively, the importance of
effective governance and how company leaders can identify and resolve
deficiencies in IT security ( www.ifac.org/store/Category.tmpl?Category=Information%20Technology&Cart
).
