03-Oct-2011
AMMAN ---October 2, 2011 --- Jordan Audit Bureau has recently hosted a seminar on "International Public Sector Accounting Standards" held in cooperation with the Arab Society of Certified Accountants (ASCA) at the Bureau’s headquarters.
HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of the Society and Mr. Mustafa Barari, Chairman of the Audit Bureau delivered a speech at the opening session.
In his speech, HE Abu-Ghazaleh said that these standards are applied by 107 countries, including eight Arab countries, excluding Jordan, and he expressed the wish that the seminar would present a recommendation to the government explaining the importance of applying these international standards in the Kingdom, pointing out that Jordan deserves to be among the States applying such standards as the private sector has already done so. He expressed the readiness of the Arab Society to hold free workshops on the application of these standards to the government sector, guided by commitment for the protection of the national economy.
Abu-Ghazaleh affirmed that these workshops will contribute to raising awareness in government institutions, especially among officials and lawmakers since the adoption of these standards provides one constant reference for accounting and provides a form for financial disclosure that is easy to understand, read and deal with, and also serves as a good basis for monitoring the accountability of officials in successive governments.
He explained that the International Accounting Standards in the Public Sector are guidelines for accounting disclosure and accounting ethics, developed specifically to provide clarifications on the preparation of financial reports by financial officials in the public sector. These standards were developed and issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in the public sector, and this specialized and independent board is part of the International Federation of Accountants, based in New York.
These standards cover the accounts of ministries and departments, government institutions and state affiliate companies, and also cover the calculation of the deficit in the fiscal budget; according to Abu-Ghazaleh the most important two problems faced by any country are budget deficit and public debt.
Abu-Ghazaleh pointed out his participation in international bodies concerned with the preparation of international accounting standards, and underlined that the ASCA has been responsible -since twenty years-for translating, publishing and distributing all of the standards each year and for the preparation of the standards in Arabic through exclusive commissioning and accreditation by the IASB and the other international accounting organizations. The Society, since its establishment, is member of the IFAC, and the Arabic profession has been represented on the Board of Directors of the IASB and IFAC as well as other international bodies.
On his part, Chairman of the Audit Bureau Al-Barari stressed that this seminar was important and that the Arab Society of Public Accountants has made significant and great contributions and it deserves the recognition in developing the accounting profession in Jordan and in the Arab world adding that “we are proud that Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, represented the Arab profession in international bodies, which is considered an accomplishment for Jordan as well as for the Arabs.”
He added that holding this seminar on international standards in the public sector comes at a time when the world is still suffering from the financial and economic crisis and its implications, this meeting contributes to the improvement and development of methods and methodologies of financial control from theoretical and practical point of view.
Furthermore, Al-Barari said that recommendations of the seminar will be submitted to the Prime Minister so as to organize specialized workshops in this area, stressing the vital importance of training in the development of professional performance.
Al-Barari explained that the Audit Bureau keeps pace with the international developments in the field of financial control, stressing that the application of international accounting standards in the public sector is very important; pointing out that the private sector in Jordan was the first to apply the international standards in the Kingdom.
Al-Barari underlined that the Bureau seeks to achieve the aspirations and objectives of its strategic plan focused on the realization of the optimal distribution of available resources so as to ensure the facilitation of communication between the various departments and the senior management and on the establishment of new directorates compatible with business requirements.
He said that the Audit Bureau management believes in the adoption of comprehensive institutional reform, thus, a directorate has been established concerned with quality
assurance and quality control, which came in line with the requirements adopted by the high control bodies.
Al-Barari said that these standards could be summed up as follows: monitoring the compliance of the Bureau’s directorates in applying the international standards in audits they carry out, and introduction of amendments that occur to these standards as well as obtaining feedback from the directorates regarding difficulties they face in applying the said standards, as well as their comments and suggestions in this regard.
Internal plans developed by the Bureau seek to ensure the quality of its vision and message, whereby the Bureau has developed a system for periodic and continuous self-assessment according to certified standards in addition to setting up a plan for ongoing improvement and professional development and technical building based on the results of the self-assessment.
He pointed out the Bureau’s systematic coordination with the Secretariat of the Parliament’s Lower House to develop a mechanism to discuss the annual report and prepare summaries of the most important current control outputs, as well as following up on recommendations of the House in coordination with the various monitoring directorates of the Bureau as well as transforming the monitoring outputs contained in the annual report into a process for institutional reform through following up of the implementation of those recommendations.
With regard to the strategic plan of the Bureau for the years (2011 - 2015), Al-Barari confirmed the pursuit of the Bureau to implement the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein to achieve sustainable development and to promote the principles of participation, transparency, accountability and equal opportunities.
The participants discussed mainly in this seminar the International Public Sector Accounting Standards and the experiences of countries applying them and the potential application of these standards in the public sector in Jordan, as lectures on these issues were given by experts from the Arab Society and from Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International Group and also from the Financial Reform Project (2) funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
More than one hundred employees working in ministries and government departments and institutions participated in the seminar.
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