In December 2020, the IAASB approved its new and revised suite of quality management standards. They focus on quality and more robustly address firms’ governance and leadership, resources, communication, and monitoring and remediation. The standards are effective December 15, 2022.
During its March meeting, the PAIB Advisory Group discussed public sector priorities and challenges for the profession across jurisdictions which vary due to the differing maturity levels of the accountancy profession in the sector, as well as local or regional specific issues. Regardless of jurisdiction, consistent messages included the need for continued advocacy to promote the value of the public sector finance workforce to both the organizations they work for and to the individuals themselves as well as the importance of investing in the workforce and skills development.
At their core audit committees play a crucial role in ensuring the provision of highquality, decision-useful information about an organization to its investors and other stakeholders. But in the current environment, fulfilling this mandate is becoming increasingly more complex as organizations face greater uncertainty and risks and as audit committee oversight responsibilities continue to widen.
Circular thinking has implications on the application of accounting and financial principles, for example, depreciating assets until they have no value does not provide incentives for shifting to circular business models. Accountants need to be able to evaluate decisions beyond the financial value generated.
