Project Status

Final Chapters of Phase 1 published on January 11, 2013:

Chapter 1:    Role and Authority of the Conceptual Framework

Chapter 2:    Objectives and Users of General Purpose Financial Reporting

Chapter 3:    Qualitative Characteristics 

Chapter 4:    Reporting Entity 

Governments and public sector entities provide constituents with social benefits, usually in non-exchange transactions. The objective of the project is to identify the circumstances and manner in which expenses and liabilities of certain social benefits of governments arise. The project will also consider how they should be recognized and measured in the financial statements.

The objective of the project is to develop financial reporting guidance on service concession arrangements (SCAs) for the grantor.

Scope

The project applies to all public sector entities, other than Government Business Enterprises (GBEs), preparing and presenting financial statements under the accrual basis of accounting.

GBEs are required to apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) which are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

The objective of the project is to develop a standard that prescribes the procedures that an entity applies to determine whether a cash-generating asset is impaired and to ensure that impairment losses are recognized. It will also specify when an entity should reverse an impairment loss and prescribes disclosures. The final standard will be based on IAS 36, Impairment of Assets

To develop IPSASs that converge with IAS 32, Financial Instruments: Presentation, IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and IFRS 7, Financial Instruments: Disclosure.

The objective of the project is to produce accounting guidance for employee benefits, including short-term benefits, post-retirement benefits, other long-term benefits and termination benefits based on IAS 19, Employee Benefits.

Ian Carruthers became Chair of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in 2016, having been a Board Member since 2010. As a Board Member he led IPSASB’s work on Long Term Financial Sustainability and alignment between IPSASs and Government Finance Statistics. Ian is now in his third term as IPSASB Chair, which runs until the end of 2025.

After joining HM Treasury from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1999, Ian played a key role in the UK Government’s transition from cash to accrual budgeting and reporting, in particular leading its Whole of Government Accounts program. He joined CIPFA in 2006. As part-time Chair, CIPFA Standards, Ian has been involved in all aspects of the Institute’s guidance development activities, including leading its work on the development of the International Framework for Good Governance in the Public Sector in partnership with IFAC.

His Technical Advisor is David Watkins.

Thomas Müller-Marqués Berger is Global Head of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) for Ernst & Young GmbH, as well as Chair of the Public Sector Group of the Fédération des Experts-comptables Européens. He also serves on the European Commission (EC) and EUROSTAT European Public Sector Accounting Standards Task Forces, and is a member of the EU Advisory Group on Accounting Standards and a member of the German Public Sector Committee of the IDW.

In addition, he serves as the Director of the Center of Competence for New Local Government Accounting for all of Germany and Director of Public Services in South-West Germany. 

Previous to these roles, Mr. Müller-Marqués Berger was a member of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, and has served as an expert for the “DAS Think Tank” of the European Court of Auditors. 

He has intensively published on the subject of Public Sector Accounting, and he has spoken globally on adoption and implementation of IPSASs. Mr. Müller-Marqués Berger graduated as a Diplom-Kaufmann at the University of Mannheim in 1993, before he passed the tax advisor exam in 1997. In 1999 he passed the exam for the German Wirtschaftsprüfer.

Thank you, Tim, for the introduction. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be here today. I note that I am in the after-lunch panel, I am the last of four speakers, and my topic is accounting. Not a good start!

My topic is government transparency and the role financial reporting standards can play. I will draw particular attention to IPSASs, but I will come to that rather than start there. The subject of this panel discussion is "New Rules and Regulations for All." My component of this session is not so much new as more necessary and more urgent than ever before.