Public Interest Committee (PIC) member Jón Blöndal provided an update of the PIC meeting on March 1, 2017. Mr. Blöndal summarized the discussion, which included the IPSASB’s current work program, the member nominations process, the Consultative Advisory Group, and the IPSASB’s due process and working procedures.
The IPSASB Chair noted that the PIC meeting had been constructive and provided a number of points for consideration by the IPSASB, particularly for the development of the future Strategy and Work Plan.
The IPSASB held an initial discussion on the process to develop its next Strategy and Work Plan. The IPSASB agreed the timeline for the process, with a Consultation Paper (CP) to be published in the first quarter of 2018. The IPSASB also confirmed that the IPSASB’s standard-setting activities are located in the broader public sector financial management landscape and that inputs to the development of the Strategy and Work Plan will be sought from a number of partners.
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The IPSASB considered issues related to accounting for revenue, including the feasibility of additional guidance to distinguish exchange and non-exchange transactions, options to address transfers with time requirements and modifications to the performance obligation approach drawn from International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The IPSASB also considered the applicability of the obligating event and performance obligation approaches (drawn from the Social Benefits and Revenue projects, respectively) to non-exchange expense transactions. The IPSASB aims to approve a CP at the June 2017 meeting.
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The IPSASB discussed amendments to other IPSASs arising from the update of IPSAS 28-30, Financial Instruments: Presentation; Recognition and Measurement; and Disclosure, and tentatively approved the authoritative material in the ED. The internal Task Based Group will review the non-authoritative material at an in-person meeting in April 2017. The IPSASB aims to approve the ED at the June 2017 meeting.
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The IPSASB decided to adopt a control-based approach to lessor accounting for the underlying asset in a lease. The IPSASB agreed that leases provided at zero or nominal consideration should be within the scope of the project.
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The IPSASB reviewed a draft CP, Financial Reporting for Heritage in the Public Sector. The IPSASB agreed to discuss the use of a “one currency unit” approach for initial recognition of heritage assets in the context of historical cost measurement.
The IPSASB approved the CP, which will be published in April. The deadline for comments will be September 30, 2017.
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The Chair of the Public Sector Measurement project’s Task Force, provided an overview of the project’s background and scope. The Task Force Chair described the rationale for the project from a public interest perspective, developments since the project’s approval in June 2015 and some high-level observations on issues. The Task Force and staff will identify project work streams and develop an issues paper for the June 2017 meeting.
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The IPSASB considered a high level summary of the responses to ED 61, Amendments to Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting (the Cash Basis IPSAS™), and had an initial discussion of some of the issues identified by respondents. The IPSASB will consider a more detailed analysis of responses at the June 2017 meeting.
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On March 6, delegates from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), IPSASB, and IFAC participated in an international seminar, Transparency and Beyond: Harnessing the Power of Accrual in Managing Public Finances. The seminar considered the broad public financial management (PFM) landscape and how economists, statisticians and policy makers can co-operate to best use the powerful information provided by accrual-based IPSAS financial reports.
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An audio podcast highlighting key points of the March 2017 meeting is now available.
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The next meeting of the IPSASB will be in Luxembourg from June 27-30, 2017.
The IPSASB discussed scope, key definitions, and the obligating events to be included in the future Exposure Draft (ED). The IPSASB decided not to include the “key participatory events” and “accumulating liabilities” options and to refine the options related to fulfillment of eligibility criteria. Following an education session on the forthcoming International Accounting Standards Board insurance standard, the IPSASB agreed that the insurance accounting approach should be optional for programs with some of the characteristics of insurance contracts that are intended to be fully funded.
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