A Global Forum for Accountancy Debates1

¹A report from the 24th session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Standards of Accounting and Reporting, 30 October–1 November 2007 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

This paper reports on the annual meeting in 2007 of the United Nations Intergovernmental Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (UN-ISAR). The main item was a continuing discussion of the application of IFRS in a number of countries where further case studies had been done. The meeting also debated the IASB exposure draft on SMEs and compared that with the UN work in this field. A second main theme was guidance on corporate responsibility indicators in annual reports and a review of the implementation status of corporate governance disclosures. The UN group had also hosted a one-day conference on accounting in the extractive industries.

Notes

¹A report from the 24th session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Standards of Accounting and Reporting, 30 October–1 November 2007 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

²See www.unctad.org

³See www.unctad.org

⁴Phuvanatnaranubala, T. (2005) ‘Practical Implementation Issues of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)’. Presentation held 21 November 2005, Geneva.

⁵These case studies, and others, are available at: www.unctad.org/Templates/

⁶ISAR (2007) ISAR Update (Geneva: United Nations). See www.unctad.org/isar

⁷Ibid., p. 4.

⁸UNCTAD (2007) Document TD/B/COM.2/ISAR/38. Available at: www.unctad.org

⁹UNCTAD (2007) Review of Practical Implementation Issues of International Financial Reporting Standards, Case Study of Pakistan, TD/B/COM.2/ISAR/38. Available at: www.unctad.org

¹⁰See Sellhorn and Gornik-Tomaszewski (2006) for a nice literature review.

¹¹Erik van der Plaats, presentation at the UN-ISAR session on 31 October 2007. For more information on ROSC see http://www.worldbank.org/ifa/rosc.html

¹²Ulf Linder, presentation at the UN-ISAR session on 31 October 2007.

¹³IASB (2007a) Exposure Draft of a Proposed IFRS for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. To locate a full copy of the discussion paper as well as the IASB exposure drafts for SMEs, see www.iasb.org

¹⁴IASB (2007b) International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (IFRS for SMEs) – Project Updates. Last updated December 2007. See www.iasb.org

¹⁵A number of scholars have attended to the process by which the standard-making work of the UN in the arena of accountancy and financial reporting has been reduced to that of issuing non-binding recommendations (see, for example, Rahman, 1998; Walton et al., 1998; Flower, 1999; Aggestam-Pontoppidan, 2006).

¹⁶To locate a full version of the SMEGA guidelines see www.unctad.org

¹⁷It should be pointed out that numerous definitions exist.

¹⁸UNCTAD has published a number of reports in this area, see, for example, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Environmental Costs and Liabilities, UNCTAD/ITE/EDS/4, Integrating Environmental and Financial Performance at the Enterprise Level, UNCTAD/ITE/TED/1 and Eco-efficiency Indicators, UNCTAD/ITE/IPC/2003/7.

¹⁹UNCTAD (2007) ‘Guidance on Corporate Responsibility Indicators in Annual Reports’, TD/B/COM.2/ISAR/42. Available at: www.unctad.org

²⁰To read more about the Global Compact one can visit www.unglobalcompact.org

²¹See the deliberations from the 22nd ISAR session.

²²See ‘Extractive Activities Research Project’, September 2007, IASB, see www.iasb.org

²³Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi.

²⁴For more information see www.iasb.org

²⁵See http://eitransparency.org