Adoption and Application of International Accounting Standards in the Public Sector
IASCA provides specialized services to Arab governments in the area of adopting the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), given their significant role in improving the quality of government performance, increasing transparency in public sector financial reporting, enhancing confidence in government financial statements and contributing to the provision of the appropriate financial statements and information for taking sound decisions and optimizing the utilization of government assets.
In implementing the project of adopting IPSAS, IASCA conducts numerous activities through the following stages:
I. Awareness Raising
IASCA holds a series of awareness raising workshops on IPSAS that aim at achieving the following:
• Introduce the importance of IPSAS.
• Introduce the best international practices in the area of IPSAS.
• Provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to implement IPSAS.
• Identify the characteristics and recent trends in public sector accounting.
• Examine the current situation at the relevant authorities and compare it with the requirements of IPSAS.
II. Consultancy and Training
IASCA plays a key role in disseminating knowledge on standards, thus improving the skills of civil servants in public sector institutions through workshops, training courses and lectures related to these standards, as well as identifying and explaining how to conform national government standards to the international standards.
III. In addition to the training role, IASCA provides consultancy services in the field of standards implementation through its specialized and qualified team of experts and consultants who carry out this project. These services include:
• Designing the "roadmap" for the project up to the complete implementation of the standards.
• Examining the laws and legal aspects of the country where these standards are to be adopted and implemented.
• Examining the current situation of government accounts in that country and comparing them with IPSAS.
• Ensuring that the planning and organizational procedures necessary to implement this project will have a positive impact on government accounts.
• Creating a mechanism that makes it easier for governments to comply with IPSAS on the basis of accrual accounting and utilizing short-term bridging provisions. This is achieved in cooperation between the experts of that authority and IASCA.
• Drawing a special strategy for actual transformation within 3-5 years.
• Communicating with the International Federation of Accountants to get hold of technical and technological support related to all standards.