The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB)’s new and revised auditor reporting standards, Reporting on Audited Financial Statements – New and Revised Auditor Reporting Standards and Related Conforming Amendments, designed to enhance auditor’s reports for investors and other users of financial statements, have been published in Spanish. This includes the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 701, Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor's Report, and changes to other ISAs related to auditor reporting, as well as to those addressing the auditor’s responsibilities in relation to going concern and communication with those charged with governance.

The Instituto de Censores Jurados de Cuentas de España performed this Spanish translation, which is a result of the Ibero-American cooperation framework, known as the IberAm project. Established in 2012, the IberAm project—which includes IFAC and member organizations in Argentina, Mexico, and Spain—is an IFAC-authorized translation and review process that strives to achieve longer-term, sustainable processes for single, high-quality Spanish translations of international standards and other IFAC publications. The Interamerican Accounting Association, IFAC’s regional organization for Latin America and the Caribbean, is an observer to the project. The project also involves a Review Committee of technical experts representing IFAC member organizations in nine Spanish-speaking countries.

An overview of translations of IFAC’s publications is available online in the Translations Database.

The IAASB has continued its extensive outreach program contemplated in its five-year Strategy for 2015–2019: Fulfilling Our Public Interest Mandate in an Evolving World. It has compiled a detailed listing of its outreach activities for the period January 2016-May 2016.

Building and maintaining a profession that is relevant to professional accountants in business, trends affecting the finance function, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and accountants in business perspective on audit quality, risk management, and integrated reporting were some of the topics debated at the recent IFAC Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee meeting.

The Committee, made up of an international group of PAIB thought leaders from IFAC member organizations, met in New York March 30-31 for its bi-annual meeting chaired by Charles Tilley, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Chief Executive.

Meeting highlights, outcomes, and recommended actions are available online. Insights from the meeting will help raise awareness of emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities affecting the accountancy profession and PAIBs across the globe, and will help the global profession coordinate activities. IFAC plans to issue a similar post-meeting output following each PAIB Committee meeting.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) recently worked with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in holding an inaugural event that assembled key public sector standard setters from around the world in Norwalk, Connecticut, to build a dialogue, exchange ideas, and discuss critical issues in standard setting.

The first-time event brought together over 70 participants from 22 organizations with standard-setting responsibilities in more than 30 countries.

“The participants’ involvement, engagement, and insights made this inaugural event a great success,” said GASB Chair David Vaudt. “As national public accounting standards setters, we all benefits from sharing thoughts, ideas, and lessons learned. We were honored to have been able to work with the IPSASB on this important initiative.”

“By providing a consistent approach to government financial reporting, as well as through the increasing global momentum towards their adoption, International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) are playing a critical role in strengthening global public financial management” IPSASB Chair Ian Carruthers added. “We hope the enthusiastic participation of the attendees can provide the foundation for the increased dialogue and cooperation that will enable the international public sector standard setting community to work increasingly closely together in addressing the challenges we all face consistently.”

The forum provided attendees with the opportunity to discuss current IPSASB projects with the board’s members and staff:

• Social benefits;
• Revenues;
• Non-exchange expenses;
• Heritage assets;
• Infrastructure assets;
• Public sector measurement; and
• Leases.

Additionally, issues outside of the IPSASB work plan were also discussed:

• “IPSAS lite” (IPSAS for small and medium-sized entities);
• Tax expenditures;
• Natural resources accounting;
• Consolidation;
• Financial performance measures;
• Service performance reporting; and
• Implementation issues.

Based on the success of the inaugural event, the IPSASB is planning a second forum. This is to be held in Zurich, Switzerland July 3-4, 2017.

About the IPSASB

The IPSASB develops accounting standards and guidance for use by public sector entities. It receives support (both direct financial and in-kind) from the Government Accounting Standards Board, the Asian Development Bank, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, the South African Accounting Standards Board, the New Zealand External Reporting Board, and the governments of Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

About the Governmental Accounting Standards Board       

Established in 1984, the GASB is the independent, private-sector organization based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that establishes accounting and financial reporting standards for U.S. state and local governments that follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). These standards are recognized as authoritative by state and local governments, state Boards of Accountancy, and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). The GASB develops and issues accounting standards through a transparent and inclusive process intended to promote financial reporting that provides useful information to taxpayers, public officials, investors, and others who use financial reports. The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) supports and oversees the GASB. For more information, visit www.gasb.org

About IFAC

IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession, dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. It is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

The ‘International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board,’ ‘International Public Sector Accounting Standards,’ ‘Recommended Practice Guidelines,’ ‘International Federation of Accountants,’ ‘IPSASB,’ ‘IPSAS,’ ‘RPG,’ ‘IFAC,’ the IPSASB logo, and IFAC logo are trademarks of IFAC, or registered trademarks and service marks of IFAC in the US and other countries.

We invite you to experience the newly integrated site-wide search functionality the next time you are exploring the IFAC website. Search now crawls all content across the site—from IFAC, the independent standard-setting boards, Global Knowledge Gateway, and MOSAIC. Users can discover everything the site has to offer on a topic with a single search query. Robust filters now allow users to refine results by date range, type of publication/news, medium (print, audio, visual), language, and more. The sort functionality allows users to display results in order of relevance or date, or alphabetical by first word.

We would love to know what you think—email communications@ifac.org with questions or comments.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has published Improvements to IPSAS 2015, which sets out amendments to International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for the following:

• Part I: Consequential Amendments Arising from Chapters 1-4 of the Conceptual Framework;
• Part II: General Improvements to IPSAS;
• Part III: IPSAS/Government Finance Statistics Alignment; and
• Part IV: The International Accounting Standards Board's annual improvements and narrow scope amendments projects.

About the IPSASB
The IPSASB develops accounting standards and guidance for use by public sector entities. It receives support (both direct financial and in-kind) from the Government Accounting Standards Board, the Asian Development Bank, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, the South African Accounting Standards Board, the New Zealand External Reporting Board, and the governments of Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland. The ‘International Public Sector Accounting Standards’ and 'IPSAS' are trademarks of IFAC, or registered trademarks and service marks of IFAC in the US and other countries.

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.

About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession, dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. It is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

IFAC representatives participated in the Third Regional Forum for Professional Accountancy Organizations (PAOs) in Europe and Central Asia in Vienna, Austria, on April 28. The event was organized by the World Bank Center for Financial Reporting Reform as part of the “Road to Europe: Program of Accounting Reform and Institutional Strengthening” and the “Strengthening Auditing and Reporting in the Countries of the Eastern Partnership” programs (also known as EU-REPARIS and STAREP, respectively).

The Forum brought together representatives from over 20 PAOs from countries in Central, Southeast, and Eastern Europe, as well as experts from the World Bank and the International Accounting Standards Board.

IFAC staff shared the IFAC Member Compliance Program Strategy for 2016-2018, which focuses on producing both qualitative and quantitative analyses of standards adoption, enhanced monitoring of compliance with the IFAC Statements of Membership Obligations, and revising its enforcement framework.

In addition, representatives of IFAC member organizations from Ireland and Singapore, as well as the Chair of the Forum of Firms, participated in panel discussions on the role of PAOs in economic growth and the challenges they face in developing a sustainable business model.

The International Good Practice Guidance series, developed to support professional accountants in business, is now available in Spanish. These publications include:

• Prefacio a la Guía Internacional de Buenas Prácticas de la IFAC (Preface to IFAC´s International Good Practice Guidance);
• Desarrollo y redacción de medidas financieras complementarias—Definición, principios e información a revelar (Developing and Reporting Supplementary Financial Measures—Definition, Principles, and Disclosures);
• Evaluar y mejorar el control interno en las organizaciones (Evaluating and Improving Internal Control in Organizations);  
• Definición y desarrollo de un código de conducta efectivo para las organizaciones (Defining and Developing an Effective Code of Conduct for Organizations);
• Evaluar y mejorar los costes en las organizaciones (Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations);
• Evaluar y mejorar el gobierno en las organizaciones (Evaluating and Improving Governance in Organizations);
• Análisis predictivo del negocio: Mejora del resultado de negocios con medidas orientadas al futuro (Predictive Business Analytics: Improving Business Performance with Forward-Looking Measures);
• Valuación de proyectos e inversiones para sustentabilidad. Creación de Valor (Project and Investment Appraisal for Sustainable Value Creation);
• Evaluación de un proyecto utilizando flujo de efectivo descontado (Project Appraisal Using Discounted Cash Flow)

These guidance reports cover areas of international and strategic importance where professional accountants in business are likely to engage. By issuing principles-based guidance, IFAC seeks to foster a common and consistent approach to those areas not covered by international standards but frequently under the domain of accountants in business. IFAC seeks to clearly identify principles that are generally accepted internationally and applicable to organizations of all sizes in commerce, industry, education, and the public and not-for-profit sectors.

These Spanish translations were performed by the Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Públicos and Federación Argentina de Consejos Profesionales de Ciencias Económicas and are a result of the Ibero-American cooperation framework, known as the IberAm project. Established in 2012, the IberAm project—which includes IFAC and its members in Argentina, Mexico, and Spain—is an IFAC-authorized translation and review process that strives to achieve longer-term, sustainable processes for single, high-quality Spanish translations of international standards and IFAC publications. The Interamerican Accounting Association, IFAC’s regional organization for Latin America and the Caribbean, is a project observer. The project includes a Review Committee of technical experts representing IFAC member organizations in nine Spanish-speaking countries.

For an overview of translations of IFAC’s publications, please visit the IFAC Translations Database.

The International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®) has published the IPSAS™ 33-38 and Recommended Practice Guideline 3 in Spanish. The IPSAS pronouncements deal with a variety of important issues, including first-time adoption of accrual basis IPSAS. These publications include:

• NICSP 33, Adopción por Primera vez de las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad del Sector Público de Base de Acumulación (o devengo) (IPSAS 33, First-time Adoption of Accrual Basis IPSASs)           
• NICSP 34, Estados Financieros Separados (IPSAS 34, Separate Financial Statements)
• NICSP 35, Estados financieros consolidados (IPSAS 35, Consolidated Financial Statements)
• NICSP 36, Inversiones en Asociadas y Negocios Conjuntos (IPSAS 36, Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures)
• NICSP 37, Acuerdos conjuntos (IPSAS 37, Joint Arrangements)
• NICSP 38, Información a Revelar sobre Participaciones en Otras Entidades (IPSAS 38, Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities)
• Guía de Práctica Recomendada 3 - Presentación de Información sobre el Rendimiento de los Servicios (Recommended Practice Guideline 3 - Reporting Service Performance Information) 

These Spanish translations were performed by faculty members from the Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. They have been reviewed by an international committee consisting of public sector experts from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain, and Uruguay.

For an overview of translations of IFAC’s publications, please visit the IFAC Translations Database.

Leaders from the public sector and professional accountancy organizations from throughout the Caribbean met Nassau April 12-14, 2016, to revitalize efforts to improve public sector financial management and support the region’s economic growth.

Hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC), the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and the World Bank, Strengthening Public Financial Reporting and Accountability explored the Caribbean social-economic situation and how better public financial management, especially improved financial accounting and reporting, can support sustainable development.

International and regional experts shared their experiences of overcoming challenge and realizing the benefits of public sector financial management reform. Forward-looking sessions discussed how stakeholders can make public financial accounting and reporting reform a success. The roundtable concluded by summarizing the actions that governments and stakeholders can take toward strengthening public financial reporting and accountability.

This invitation-only event covered regional economic, social, and business imperatives; public financial reporting reforms (regional and international perspectives); engaging stakeholders; challenges of the accountancy profession in the Caribbean and capacity-building strategies; and technical training on latest developments in International Public Sector Accounting Standards.

The event opened on Tuesday 12th April by the The Hon. Michael Halkitis, MP, Minister of State for Finance, Government of The Bahamas.

For more information, please contact Jasmine Davis, ICAC President, president@icacorg.com, Misha Lobban Clarke, ICAC CEO, ceo@icacorg.com or Vincent Tophoff, Senior Technical Manager, Accountability. Now.