The program below provides links to speaker biographies, speeches, and presentations from the 2011 IFAC Small and Medium Practices (SMP) Forum held in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2011. 

The following materials are also available:

• Interviews conducted by SMP Committee Deputy Chair Giancarlo Attolini
• Press release, IFAC Global Forum Highlights Role of SMPs in Partnering with Small Businesses
• Article, "IFAC SMP Forum Unites SMP Community, Facilitates Global Dialogue," on p. 10 of the April 2011 issue of IFAC News

Forum Program

Roger Tabor, Chair of the Professional Accountants in Business Committee addresses the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan on their 50th anniversary. Mr. Tabor discusses the influence and reach of the accountancy profession, and the objectives and focus areas of the Committee.

Thank you for the introduction Caroline, and for the kind welcome. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to be here; my congratulations to CIPFA for organizing such an excellent conference.

The overall theme of this conference is trust and accountability in public financial management. The incoming Chairman of the IASB, Hans Hoogervorst, said at a recent conference in Brussels, “Without transparency, there can be no enduring stability.” I believe that without transparency, neither can there be trust or accountability. And as a basis for what follows, I should be clear that a crucial element of transparency in the public sector is accrual accounting.

Thank you, Tony for the introduction. Good morning everyone.

It is always a pleasure to be in Melbourne. And it is a particular pleasure to be participating in this convention, both as a member of CPA Australia, and someone who, admittedly a very long time ago, was on the public sector committee of the Tasmanian branch.

Thinking about what to cover in this presentation lead me to a personal reflection on what has been achieved in governmental financial reporting over the past 40 years, where we are now, and what remains to be done. Even as a very new graduate in accounting, working in the public service in New Zealand 40 years ago, I could not understand why governments did not seem to use good accounting information.

My Lord Mayor, CIPFA President Jaki Meekings Davis, Distinguished Guests, Ladies, and Gentlemen.  Thank you, Jaki, for your kind introduction and for your welcome to this marvelous occasion, being held in such a historic building.

125 years - 1885 to 2010. 1885, apart from being the year in which CIPFA was founded and incorporated not long after as the Corporate Treasurers and Accountants Institute, it was also the year of the first election in which the electoral franchise in England was extended to all men; and the audience tonight evidences significant further progress in this regard!  In the same year professional football was legalized in Britain and, close to my heart, it was the year in which Gottfried Daimler patented the first motorcycle. A memorable year!

IFAC President Robert Bunting spoke at the 2010 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting on accounting education in a global environmnent. Watch the video here.

Good afternoon and thank you for that kind introduction.

Before I begin, let me first express my deep appreciation to IOSCO for inviting me to speak here today and for sponsoring this very important conference. 

I'd also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank IOSCO's representatives for participating in the work of the IAASB in developing the International Standards on Auditing, or ISAs. 

As I'm sure many of you know, IFAC and IOSCO have a long-standing relationship. But I think our relationship has been especially meaningful over the past six to seven years. We were especially proud to receive IOSCO's letter last year in which it officially endorsed the IAASB's ISAs.

We have also been pleased to work with IOSCO as part of the Monitoring Group in its review of the IFAC reforms and look forward to responding to the consultation paper issued recently.

First may I say what a great pleasure it is to present on the work of the committee that I chair here in my home country. Today I will share with what the committee is doing, and plans to do, to support the SMP constituency--and in turn assist small- and medium-sized entities (SMEs). I will conclude this presentation with a look into the future in particular, the committee’s role in implementing the recommendations.