At a time of increasing momentum for IPSAS adoption and implementation globally, the IPSASB Strategy and Work Plan 2019-2023 sets out the Board's work and priorities through this five-year period. 

As outlined in the document, the IPSASB's strategic objective is: strengthening Public Financial Management (PFM) globally through increasing adoption of accrual-based IPSAS. This will be delivered through two main areas of activity, both of which have a public interest focus:

Highlights from the CAG's December 3, 2018 meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

• 00:11     Welcome and introduction: John Stanford, IPSASB Technical Director
• 00:54     Chair’s summary of the IPSASB CAG meeting: Thomas Müller-Marqués Berger, IPSASB CAG Chair
• 09:38     Closing remarks: John Stanford, IPSASB Technical Director

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released a new standard and an Exposure Draft on accounting for social benefits, and collective and individual services, respectively. Between them, International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) 42, Social Benefits, and the related Exposure Draft (ED) 67, Collective and Individual Services and Emergency Relief (Amendments to IPSAS 19), address a wide range of significant government expenditures that directly impact the lives of citizens globally.

IPSAS 42 provides much-needed guidance on accounting for social benefits expenditure, which comprises about one fifth of GDP across OECD countries. It defines social benefits as cash transfers paid to specific individuals and/or households to mitigate the effect of social risk. Specific examples include state retirement benefits, disability benefits, income support and unemployment benefits. The new standard requires an entity to recognize an expense and a liability for the next social benefit payment.

“IPSAS 42 represents a big step forward for global financial reporting in the public sector and fills one of the major gaps in IPSASB’s suite of standards,” said IPSASB Chair Ian Carruthers. “Social benefits has been a challenging project because of the differing, strongly held views as to when a liability for social benefits arises. We are confident that the final standard will increase transparency and comparability in public sector financial reporting.”

In order to extend IPSASB’s guidance to public services as well as cash transfers, ED 67 proposes new requirements for accounting for collective services (such as defense at national-levels and street lighting at sub-national levels), individual services (such as healthcare and education) and emergency relief.

For collective and individual services, ED 67 proposes that an expense is recognized at the point of service delivery. ED 67 also proposes that an expense and liability is recognized for some emergency relief, but not where emergency relief is delivered as an ongoing activity of government.

“The distinction between social benefits and collective and individual services is important, but the accounting treatment of these transactions must be conceptually consistent,” said Mr. Carruthers. “Issuing ED 67 now, together with IPSAS 42, will allow our stakeholders to identify and account more consistently for the full range of social policy obligations of government.”

How to Comment
To access Exposure Draft 67 and its summary At-a-Glance document, or to submit a comment, visit the IPSASB website at www.ipsasb.org. Comments on the Exposure Draft are requested by May 31, 2019. The IPSASB encourages IFAC member organizations and regional accountancy organizations to promote the availability of this Exposure Draft to their members and employees.

About the IPSASB
The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) works to strengthen public financial management globally through developing and maintaining accrual-based International Public Sector Accounting Standards® (IPSAS®) and other high-quality financial reporting guidance for use by governments and other public sector entities. It also raises awareness of IPSAS and the benefits of accrual adoption. The Board receives support from the Asian Development Bank, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, the New Zealand External Reporting Board, and the governments of Canada and New Zealand. The structures and processes that support the operations of the IPSASB are facilitated by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). For copyright, trademark, and permissions information, please go to permissions or contact permissions@ifac.org.

About the Public Interest Committee
The governance and standard-setting activities of the IPSASB are overseen by the Public Interest Committee (PIC), to ensure that they follow due process and reflect the public interest. The PIC is comprised of individuals with expertise in public sector or financial reporting, and professional engagement in organizations that have an interest in promoting high-quality and internationally comparable financial information.

Amendments to IPSAS 36 and IPSAS 41, 2018 comprises: Part I: Long-term Interests in Associates and Joint Ventures (Amendments to IPSAS 36); and Part II: Prepayment Features with Negative Compensation (Amendments to IPSAS 41). Amendments in Part I and II arise from consideration of the annual improvements and narrow scope amendments projects of the IASB.

IPSAS 42, Social Benefits, provides guidance on accounting for social benefits expenditure. It defines social benefits as cash transfers paid to specific individuals and/or households to mitigate the effect of social risk. Specific examples include state retirement benefits, disability benefits, income support and unemployment benefits. The new standard requires an entity to recognize an expense and a liability for the next social benefit payment.

Henning Diederichs became the Technical Advisor to the UK member of IPSASB in January 2019. He was nominated by the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB), an umbrella group of chartered professional bodies of British qualified chartered accountants (ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAS and Chartered Accountants Ireland).

Mr. Diederichs is a senior technical manager, specializing in public sector financial and non-financial reporting at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). His role includes supporting the UK Ministry of Finance in their application of the TCFD (Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures) framework, reviewing the capitals approach (Capitals Coalition) regarding impacts and dependencies across government and contributing to ICAEW’s literature on a wide range of subjects including a comparison between IFRS and IPSAS.

Mr. Diederichs has over ten years of technical accounting experience in both the public and private sectors. Before joining ICAEW in 2015, he helped construct and implement the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) consolidation process at the UK's Ministry of Finance, specializing in intra-governmental transactions and balances. Prior to that he worked for Barclays PLC in their group finance division covering areas such as goodwill, credit risk, joint ventures and associates.

Mr. Diederichs is a fellow of ICAEW and graduated with a BA in economics from the University of Essex (UK).

Lynn Pamment was a member of the IPSASB until 2024. Ms. Pamment was appointed as a member of IPSASB in January 2019.  She was nominated by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Ms. Pamment is Comptroller & Auditor General for Jersey, an appointment she took up in January 2020.  Prior to her appointment in Jersey she was a lead partner in PwC UK’s Government and Public Sector Assurance practice where she gained over 30 years experience of working in an assurance and advisory capacity with public and private sector organisations in the UK and beyond.

Ms. Pamment is a first class honours graduate from the University College Cardiff.  She is a prize winning member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and is also a member of CIPFA.

Ms. Pamment has led a number of high profile reviews on behalf of the Government in Wales.  She is also the Chair of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board to HM Treasury in the UK.

Her Technical Advisor is Henning Diederichs.

Luzvi Chatto was a member of the IPSASB until 2024. Ms. Chatto  joined the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board in January 2019. She was nominated by the Commission on Audit (COA), the Supreme Audit Institution of the Philippines, and the Philippine Regulatory Board of Accountancy. She returned as an independent member in 2022 following her retirement from the COA. 

Ms. Chatto is the retired Assistant Commissioner of the Commission on Audit (COA). During her career spanning 41 years with the COA, Ms. Chatto also led audits of various government agencies, the United Nations and its agencies in New York, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ivory Coast, and Guinea, and foreign-based Philippine government agencies. She also headed COA’s Human Resource Management Office, Information Technology Office, Cordillera Administrative Region, Accounting Systems Development and Other Services Office, and Government Accountancy Office.

Ms. Chatto has been actively involved in and immensely contributed to the conceptualization and implementation of the Philippine Public Financial Management Reform Roadmap since 2010. She was COA’s focal person in the 2015/2016 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment conducted by the World Bank Group. She is an IntoSAINT (INTOSAI Self-Assessment on INTegrity) Moderator; a member of various inter-agency committees including the PFM Committee, Budget and Treasury Management System Steering Committee and Technical Working Group on Government eReceipt and ePayment Project; a member of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Government Association of Certified Public Accountants; and Executive Vice President of the Government Financial Management Innovators’ Circle, Inc.

Ms. Chatto is a Certified Public Accountant. She graduated from the Baliuag University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce (Cum Laude) in 1977 and obtained her Graduate Diploma in Development Administration from the Australian National University in 1997 as an AusAID scholar.