About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

C00493 1 (2011-09-08)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadofn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i ~GA 0 Accountability I ntegrity Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 September 9, 2011 The Technical Director International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board International Federation of Accountants 277 Wellington Street West Toronto Ontario Canada M5V 3H2 Subject: International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) December 2010, Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities Exposure Draft: Role, Authority and Scope; Objectives and Users; Qualitative Characteristics; and Reporting Entity This letter provides the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) comments on the IPSASB Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities Exposure Draft. The Conceptual Framework is an important and timely initiative that makes explicit the concepts, definitions and principles that the Board will use to develop International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) or non-authoritative guidance applicable to the preparation and presentation of general purpose financial reports. We are supportive of the framework, which is consistent with several key concepts articulated in the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board's Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (SFFAC 1): Objectives of Federal Financial Reporting and seeks to provide for application to diverse forms of government and other differences that may exist in the jurisdictions that adopt IPSASs. We also strongly agree that the Conceptual Framework should not establish authoritative requirements for financial reporting by public sector entities that adopt IPSASs nor override the requirements of IPSASs. It is our view that a conceptual framework is more general than accounting standards and therefore should not contain specific authoritative requirements for entities to follow and should provide general guidance to the Board itself as it deliberates on specific issues. The conceptual framework is also useful to others in understanding accounting and financial reports prepared in accordance with the IPSASs. We also support using the Conceptual Framework to provide guidance on financial reporting issues that are not articulated in the IPSAS or other non-authoritative guidance. Our specific comments are discussed below.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most