CEF Contributes to Debates around Accrual Accounting

As part of our Workshop and Seminars program we are organizing a workshop on accrual accounting that will contribute to discussions on recent calls for harmonized European public sector accounting standards. This workshop will bring together public officials, accountants, and external and internal auditors from CEF member countries, Latvia and Hungary.

Designed by Mr. Noel Hepworth, a renowned expert in the field, this workshop aims to explore the issues raised in the recent Eurostat report on the adoption of accrual accounting throughout the European Union for the purposes of government financial reporting. We spoke with Mr. Hepworth about the relevance of recent developments for South East Europe. He explained, “Should such a reform occur, it would have a considerable impact, not just on member states but also upon candidate countries. There are though costs and risks associated with such a change as well as the direct impacts upon external audit, internal audit and financial control arrangements.”

A change to accrual accounting should not be regarded as a financial reporting change. Mr. Hepworth noted, “Also other issues are raised because better quality financial reporting should result in increased transparency and hence pressure upon governments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. There are, as a consequence, impacts upon the management of assets and liabilities and upon the other resources that the public sector uses. So should the introduction of accrual accounting also impact upon the management arrangements which apply within the public sector? At the present such management (and accounting) arrangements are not well adapted to improving efficiency and effectiveness, and often neither do public policies and laws facilitate reforms that would allow such improvements to occur.”

We welcome you to support this highly topical event by joining us at the seminar on June 27–28.

CEF workshop on Accrual Accounting will be delivered by:

• Noel Hepworth, Independent Public Policy Professional, United Kingdom
• Katarina Kaszasova, State Reporting Section, Ministry of Finance, Slovak Republic
• Andrej Flajs, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
• Graham Lock, GFS Quality Management and Government Accounting, Eurostat, EC
• Anabela Rodrigues, GFS Quality Management and Government Accounting, Eurostat, EC
• Zdenka Vidovič, KPMG, Slovenia