SPOTLIGHT ON

• Ian Ball's May 5, 2012 Letter to the Editor in The Economist

  The current issue of The Economist includes aLetter to the Editor from IFAC CEO Ian Ball on the need for governments to follow current international accounting standards and some of the public sector accounting errors of the past.

• Letter to the G-20: IFAC Urges G-20 To Take Action Against Inconsistent, Unreliable Public Sector Financial Reporting.

• IPSASB Oversight

The Monitoring Group (MG) and Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) public consultation papers—Please be sure to express your views regarding IPSASB oversight.

Responses are requested by June 28, 2012, and should be submitted electronically to Piob-MonitoringGroup@ipiob.org

Consultation Papers:

Public consultation on the governance (with special focus on organisational aspects, funding, composition and the roles) of the Monitoring Group, the PIOB and the standard setting boards and Compliance Advisory Panel operating under the auspices of IFAC

PIOB Work Program 2012 and Beyond Public Consultation Paper

The Monitoring Group home page

• IFAC CEO Ian Ball speaks to Investment Europe on accounting standards and the need for transparency in government financial reporting.

• Government Accounting―Making Enron Look Good―World Economics Journal, March 2012―IFAC CEO Ian Ball and Gary Pflugrath IFAC Deputy Director, Public Policy and Regulation call for accrual-based accounting for governments and the need for institutional reform in public sector financial management. (www.worldeconomics.com)

• IFAC CEO Ian Ball's Letter to the Editor―Governments guilty of deficient accounting practices―which appeared on FT.com on the sovereign debt crisis and the need for transparency in government reporting.

• The IPSASB’s highest profile project―with a goal of completion in late 2013―The Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities (the Conceptual Framework) seeks to establish and make explicit the concepts that are to be applied in developing International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) and other documents that provide guidance on information included in general purpose financial reports (GPFRs.) Divided into four phases of development, all four stages have begun with phases one through three being the most advanced.