NSW Audit Office - Financial Reports - 2005 - Volume 2 - Survey of Agency Preparedness for Australian

Survey of Agency Preparedness for Australian Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (AEIFRS) Along with the private sector, public sector agencies are required to apply AEIFRS in General Purpose Financial Reports for reporting periods beginning on and after 1 January 2005. For the majority of New South Wales public sector agencies, this means the financial report for the year ended 30 June 2005 will be prepared under existing Australian Accounting Standards. However Australian Accounting Standard AASB1047 requires them to disclose in the notes of their financial reports, information about the transition process, key changes to accounting policies and any known or estimable information about the impact on the financial report of the adoption of AEIFRS. The impact of applying AEIFRS on public sector agencies will vary. Depending on the nature of their operations, their assets and their liabilities, there may be little impact or it may be significant. Agencies may be affected by new standards relating to transactions such as property, plant and equipment, financial instruments, investments, employee entitlements (superannuation), borrowing costs and grants. As the time period remaining to prepare for the change is getting shorter, we decided to undertake a survey of the preparedness of a sample of agencies to meet the deadline. We looked at whether: agency management was aware of the change y finance or audit committees or boards ...