INTOSAI PSC
Steering Committee
Warren Allen, President
International Federation of Accountants
June 18, 2013
Stockholm, Sweden
Page 1 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Priorities as IFAC President
• Supporting the independent standard-setting boards
– International accountancy standards
•
Public sector accounting
•
Auditing and assurance
•
Ethics
•
Education
Page 2 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Priorities as IFAC President
• Oversight of the IPSASB
– Critical time to demand high-quality financial management
– Decision-making must reflect a long-term vision
– Oversight must be a priority and should:
•
Be undertaken without disrupting current IPSASB efforts
•
Ensure the proper combination of private/public sector involvement
•
Provide an appropriate level of shared, sustainable resources
Page 3 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Priorities as IFAC President
• Advancing public sector financial management
– IPSAS Adoption/Implementation
– G-20 call for “transparency/comparability of public sector reporting”
– EU: IPSASs are an “indisputable reference”
– IMF report highlighting the seriousness and extent of the current
inadequacies in governments’ fiscal reporting and accountability
Page 4 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Priorities as IFAC President
• According to the IMF report, the largest unexpected
increases in general government gross debt as a share of
GDP (2007-2010) occurred due to:
– An underestimation of the likelihood and scale of shocks to the
government’s fiscal position (37%)
– Incomplete information about the government’s underlying fiscal
position (23%)
– Discretionary policy measures introduced in the wake of the crisis
(18%)
Page 5 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Priorities as IFAC President
• Acting as the global voice of the profession
• Reinforcing and supporting Professional Accountancy
Organizations (PAOs)
– PAOs:
•
Act in the public interest;
•
Are integral to the delivery of good corporate governance; and
•
Support consistent global standards.
Page 6 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
A CFO at the Cabinet Table?
“The role of the Chief Financial Officer and Group Finance
Function provides financial discipline in the business world.
While the private sector is not without its faults, we believe
that public sector structures can benefit and learn from the
best of some of its processes.”
-
Michael Izza, ICAEW Chief Executive
Page 7 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka
• Public sector accounting standards are issued jointly by
the CA Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Finance & Planning
• The Public Sector Accounting Standards Committee
includes four senior officers of the Ministry of Finance &
Planning, who are formally nominated by the Ministry
• By the end of 2012, CA Sri Lanka had adopted 10
selected IPSASs on a priority basis as SLPSAS.
Page 8 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee
Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA)
• PAFA supports the development and enhancement of the
accountancy profession in Africa by:
•
Participating in the development and dissemination of the
standards, guidelines, and other pronouncements of the
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the
independent standard-setting boards supported by IFAC
•
Engaging national governments, regional trading and economic
bloc and development organizations in the development of the
accountancy profession in the African continent
Page 9 | Confidential and Proprietary Information
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