News Article - 13 December 2006
Category:

Moving to international financial reporting standards (IFRS) within government departments is to impact upon finance directors rather than external advisory companies such as the big four, an expert has claimed.

Andrew Baigent, director of financial audit policy at the National Audit Office, told Accountancy Age that government financiers and reporting specialists would have to lead the move after the big four helped public businesses on their way to implementing IFRS.

"Departments have good financial reporting specialists, and we're not expecting there'll be any significant need to bring in specialist external advice," he said.

The National Audit Office recently announced that government accounts could have IFRS in place by 2008-09, before the convergence of generally accepted accounting principles with the standards in 2009.

According to the publication, the Treasury is creating a shadow reporting guide based on IFRS which is due for release in May next year.

Earlier this month, the Financial Reporting Council released its findings from the first implementation of IFRS by UK companies, describing compliance levels as good.

Article keywords:

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »