FDs of government departments to bear brunt of transfer to IFRS, not the Big Four
Accountancy Age, 12 Dec 2006
Government finance directors will bear the brunt of IFRS transition and not external advisers such as the Big Four.
The move to international accounting standards for government departments will be led by their own finance directors and reporting specialists, according Andrew Baigent, director of financial audit policy at the National Audit Office. The Big Four significantly grew revenues by helping public companies move to IFRS .
The government has also been pushing to appoint qualified accountants in departmental FD roles over the last two years.
'Departments have good financial reporting specialists, and we're not expecting there'll be any significant need to bring in specialist external advice,' said Baigent.
His comments came as the NAO revealed that government accounts could move to international standards by 2008/2009, ahead of UK GAAP's convergence with the standards from January 2009.
The Treasury is preparing a shadow reporting manual based on IFRS, which should be ready by May 2007.
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