The achievements of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) are being undermined by poor compliance by companies that use International Accounting Standards (IASs) and poor auditing of IAS financial statements, according to the International Accounting Standards Survey 2000
(http://www.cairns.co.uk).
The International Accounting Standards Survey 2000, by David Cairns, a former IASC secretary-general, reveals that listed companies, particularly large European companies, adopt a variety of approaches to compliance with IASs. While many of the 165 Survey companies publish high quality, transparent and comparable IAS financial
statements:
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17 Survey companies disclose exceptions from full IAS compliance, a practice which the Survey describes as 'disclosed IAS lite';
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25 companies use IASs only when permitted by, or in the absence of, national standards («implied IAS lite»); and
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at least 20 companies, including some of Europe«s largest companies, claim full IAS compliance but adopt accounting policies that conflict with IASs (»undisclosed IAS lite').
Some companies appear to correct their IAS financial statements in SEC
filings.
Compliance problems are compounded by the lack of proper auditing, according to the Survey. The IAS information of over a third of Survey companies is not audited. And when the IAS information is audited, some auditors condone accounting policies that do not comply with
IASs.
Other conclusions from the International Accounting Standards Survey 2000
include:
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only 20% of FTSE Eurotop 300 companies report under IASs – over the next three years, 250 of Europe«s largest companies will have to change the way they prepare their financial statements to meet the EU»s 2005 deadline for full IAS compliance;
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only 12 out of 45 EU based EASDAQ companies comply with the current requirement to publish IAS financial statements or a reconciliation to IASs; and
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virtually no companies in Australia, Canada, Netherlands, UK or USA comply with IASs.
The International Accounting Standards Survey 2000 (ISBN 0-9540247-0-2) is available from David Cairns, price GBP250/USD370/EUR420. Use the order forms on www.cairns.co.uk, or telephone +44 (0) 1491 412444, fax +44 (0) 1491 411811, e-mail iasconsult@cairns.co.uk.
Academics and academic institutions are entitled to a 20% discount. Visa and MasterCard accepted (all credit card orders are processed in sterling).