COLLABORATING TO ADVANCE THE ACCOUNTANCY
PROFESSION IN SLOVAKIA
By: Fermín del Valle, President
International Federation of Accountants
Slovenska Komora Auditorov 15th Anniversary
Bratislava, Slovakia – October 26, 2007
Good morning. It’s wonderful to be in Bratislava. I would like to congratulate you on
the 15th Anniversary of the Slovak Chamber of Auditors, and I bring warm greetings and
affection from the entire IFAC family that joins you today in this celebration.
I thank you very much for this invitation, which has allowed me, among many other
things, to visit for the first time, the country where my mother was born. I must confess
that I regret that it took me so long to get here, and therefore, appreciate this invitation
very much.
I can honestly tell you that I feel a strong connection with this country, and I am sure that
the bond will become stronger in the days to come.
For 30 years, IFAC’s mission has been to work in the public interest to strengthen the
worldwide accountancy profession by establishing and promoting adherence to high
quality professional standards, furthering the convergence of those standards, and
speaking as the voice of the profession on relevant public policy issues.
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Next month we will be celebrating our 30th Anniversary in Mexico, in the occasion of the
IFAC Council meeting. I would like to ask you to attend this especial meeting. It would
be an honor if the president of the Chamber, Mr. Bosela, could attend the meeting and
join us in this celebration.
IFAC is proud of its 155 member bodies and believes that professional accountancy
organizations such as the Slovak Chamber of Auditors have a key role to play in the
integral development of the societies they operate in. By integral development, I refer to
development that embraces not only the economic aspect, but also the social and cultural
ones.
A main goal for IFAC and its member bodies is to help the accountancy profession
produce high quality financial information that people can rely on to make sound
investments and financial decisions. In turn, steady investment in a region’s businesses
ultimately makes that region more prosperous.
Economic growth should benefit people. Our main goal is to improve people’s lives, to
make financial affluence possible, and to put an end to poverty around the world. As I see
it, our profession’s public interest responsibilities arise from our role in relation to these
objectives.
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If you allow me, I would like to make a special request regarding a subject that has a
great deal to do with the objective of ensuring a high quality system of financial
information.
As you know, IFAC has long championed the convergence to international standards, not
only those issued by the independent standard setting boards of IFAC, but also
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
We do this because we are convinced that using a common internationally accepted
language in accounting and globally ensuring the use of audit, quality control, education
and ethical standards is a process that will benefit the functioning of the economy and,
consequently, all of society.
I would like to commend the members of the Slovak Chamber of Auditors who have
actively guided the convergence to ISAs and IFAC´s Code of Ethics and have worked to
translate ISAs from English to Slovak and have devised a system for translating future
standards.
Today I want to emphasize a future challenge. IAASB expects to complete all 35 ISAs as
final standards, redrafted under the Clarity project, by October 2008 and, on this basis,
IAASB is proposing that these standards become effective for financial periods beginning
on or after December 15, 2009, in order to give auditors around the world and European
Union member states a chance to properly implement them.
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As for the European Commission, it has not yet formally adopted ISAs as the standards
of choice. The timetable is unknown and some situations exist that may indicate a delay
in this decision.
However, one important aspect to consider is that the member states can implement
national auditing standards even though the Commission has not yet adopted
international auditing standards. This means that it is not necessary to wait on a decision
from the European Commission to adopt the ISAs. Adoption of ISAs can be done at a
national level and, in this way, Slovakia can realize the benefits sooner.
Certainly, this would be equally positive for the rest of the countries of Europe and it
would require professional accountancy organizations and national standard setters to
work together. It would also be necessary to have timely translation of the new set of
redrafted standards and deliver the proper training for the professional accountants.
I strongly encourage you to fully adopt the ISAs on the effective date proposed by the
IAASB.
Finally, I would like to share with you my conviction that in order to give a proper and
solid answer to the demands being presented to us, regarding all the issues we have
discussed and many others as well, it is necessary that the professional organizations be
aligned on basic strategic objectives and actions. We need to identify and implement
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mechanisms that allow effective collaboration. We need to create and use the proper
channels of communication.
Alignment, collaboration and communication are the drivers of success.
In May of this year, we had a productive meeting with the presidents and chief executives
of various IFAC Member Bodies of this region. There we established the foundation for
permanent dialogue and greater integration that permits effective collaboration between
these organizations. I trust that the Slovak Chamber of Auditors will continue to support
this initiative.
Thanks to your contributions, Slovakia is leading the way for much of the European
Union and is making important progress on many fronts. I am confident you will
continue to collaborate, innovate and lead for many years to come.
Thank you for your attention.
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