NSW Audit Office - Awareness - Issue 2005 01 - January 2005

The Audit Office Of New South Wales

Informations

• Publié par: Phuem
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

Extrait

AWARENESSccounting and Auditing Developments ISSUE 1 JAUARY 2005
AUDIT OFFICE 1 AUDIT OFFICE UPDATE
UPDATE
ACCOUNTING 2 Follow-up Performance Audit:
STANDARDS UPDATEEnvironmental Impact Assessment of Major Projects
Our 2001 audit concluded that the basis for environmental impact AUSTRALIAN 5
ACCOUNTING assessment of major projects in NSW was sound and the key concept
STANDARDS BOARD of ‘environmental significance’ well defined. However we identified
UPDATEopportunities for improvement and made 21 recommendations.
The agency then responsible for these assessments accepted 19
AUDITING 8
recommendations, partially accepted one and rejected one. UPDATE
This audit reviewed the implementation of the recommendations as at
INTERNATIONAL 9December 2004.
UPDATE
Audit opinion OTHER ISSUES 15
The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources
MISCELLANEOUS 16(DIPNR) has partially implemented the recommendations that it
PUBLICATIONS
accepted from our 2001 Audit.
LEGISLATIVE 18Implementation was delayed by restructuring of the agencies responsible
CHANGES UPDATEfor the environmental impact assessment of major projects.
DIPNR has made satisfactory progress implementing our recommendations TREASURY UPDATE 19
on improving the strategic planning framework, compliance monitoring
PREMIER’S 20and stakeholder access to information.
DEPARTMENT
It has made less progress on implementing our recommendations on UPDATE
improving internal processes, procedures and systems to deliver a more
AUDIT OFFICE 22effective environmental impact assessment system.
BETTER PRACTICE
DIPNR is to further investigate strengthening the management of its GUIDES
systems to reflect relevant best practice.
Further information
Sean Crumlin, Director, Performance Audit on 02 9275 7286 or
[e-mail] .go v .au. The full report is available on our
internet site: www .audit.nsw .go v .au.
Awareness is published by The Audit Office of New South Wales, Level 15, 1 Margaret Street
Sydney NSW 2000, GPO Box 12, Sydney NSW 2001 Telephone [phone] Fax [phone]
Email [e-mail] Website www.audit.nsw.gov.au
CONTENTSACCOUNTING STANDARDS UPDATE
AASB 6 Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources
The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) has issued AASB 6 Exploration
for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources. This standard is the Australian equivalent
of IFRS 6 Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources, which was released
by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on 9 December 2004. The
Standard was issued in accordance with the Financial Reporting Council’s policy
of adopting the Standards of the IASB and applies to annual reporting periods
beginning on or after 1 January 2005.
AASB 6 permits ‘area of interest’ accounting to continue for exploration and
evaluation costs. Consequently, the practical application of the Standard is that it
should provide similar outcomes for the treatment of exploration and evaluation
costs to that currently provided under our existing Standard, AASB 1022 Accounting
for the Extractive Industries.
As a consequence of issuing AASB 6, the AASB has also made amendments to:
• AASB 1 First-time Adoption of Australian Equivalents to International Financial
Reporting Standards;
• AASB 116 Property, Plant and Equipment; and
• AASB 138 Intangible Assets.
These amendments were made through the “omnibus” standard, AASB 2004-1
Amendments to Australian Accounting Standard, which was issued in conjunction
with AASB.
Revised Accounting Standard on Employee Benefits, AASB 119
Employee Benefits
The AASB has issued a revised AASB 119 Employee Benefits. The revisions reflect
amendments made by the IASB to IAS 19 Employee Benefits: Actuarial Gains and
Losses, Group Plans and Disclosures on 16 December 2004.
The most significant change in the revised AASB 119 has been the introduction of
two additional options to account for actuarial gains and losses associated with
defined benefit plans:
• the “corridor” approach which was not permitted in AASB 119 as issued in July
2004; and
• the “direct to retained earnings” method introduced by the IASB amendments
to IAS 19 Standard.
The revised Standard also specifies how group entities should account for defined
benefit group plans in their separate or individual financial statements and requires
entities to disclose additional information on defined benefit plans.
2 3The Audit Office of New South WalesThe revised AASB 119 is applicable to annual reporting periods beginning on or after
1 January 2006 with early adoption permitted for reporting periods beginning on or
after 1 January 2005 to enable entities to apply the requirements on transition to
Australian equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).
As a consequence of issuing revised AASB 119, the AASB has also made amendments
to:
• AASB 1 First-time Adoption of Australian Equivalents to International Financial
Reporting Standards;
• AASB 101 Presentation of Financial Statements; and
• AASB 124 Related Party Disclosures.
These amendments were made through the “omnibus” standard, AASB 2004-3
Amendments to Australian Accounting Standard, which was issued in conjunction
with AASB 119.
Proposed Revision of Concise Financial Report Standard ED 138
Concise Financial Reports: Revisions to AASB 1039
The AASB released ED 138, containing the Board’s proposed revisions to AASB 1039
Concise Financial Reports. The majority of changes proposed by the Board relate to
the two major events affecting AASB 1039 since it was last issued in 2002:
• the adoption of Australian equivalents to International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRSs); and
• the CLERP 9 amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 in 2004.
In relation to the first, the majority of the consequential changes are simple and
automatic in nature, such as changing terminology, updating cross references and
deleting disclosure of extraordinary items. The most substantial automatic change
is the proposal to add a fourth financial statement, being the statement on changes
in equity required by AASB 101 Presentation of Financial Statements. Two of the
consequential changes proposed are not automatic and add disclosures, the first on
a permanent basis (identify presentation currency) and the second as a once-only
item (signpost to details on transition to the new Standards).
In relation to CLERP 9, the Board considered primarily the new requirement (section
299A) for listed companies to provide an operational and financial report (OFR)
in the Directors’ Report. It noted the concerns expressed by listed companies
about the likely duplication in an OFR of much of the information contained in the
discussion and analysis required by AASB 1039.
Comments are due by 28 February 2005.
2 3The Audit Office of New South Wales The Audit Office of New South WalesProposed Revised APS 5 Quality Control for Accounting Firms
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and CPA Australia issued a
proposed revised APS 5 for comment. It is proposed this standard will replace
existing APS 4 and 5 (for ICAA members) and existing APS 4/5 (for CPA Australia
members).
The ED is proposing to incorporate the content of the International Standard on
Quality Control (ISQC) 1 Quality Control for Firms that perform Audits and Reviews
of Historical Financial Information, and Other Assurance and Related Services
Engagements which was issued in February 2004, effective as of 15 June 2005.
The intended application date of the revised APS 4/5 is 15 December 2005, with a
one-year transitional period for firms that do not audit disclosing entities or large
superannuation funds.
Comments are due by 15 March 2005.
Accounting Guidance Releases Withdrawn
The AASB decided to withdraw the following Accounting Guidance Releases with
effect for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2005 as they are
superseded by the Year 2005 Standards:
Purpose and Scope of Accounting Guidance Accounting Guidance Release 1 Releases and Procedures for Issuance
Accounting for a Change in the Rate of Company elease 2 Income Tax
Accounting for the Intra-group Transfer of Tax elease 4 Losses
Accounting Guidance Release 8 Accounting for the Capital Gains Tax elease10 Measurement of Monetary Assets and Liabilities elease11 Debtor’s Accounting for Debt Restructuring
Determination of Discount Rates for Measuring Accounting Guidance Release13 Certain Liabilities at Present Value
Source: AASB Action Alert No 80 (December 2004)
4 5The Audit Office of New South WalesAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING STANDARDS BOARD
UPDATE MEETING 8-9 DECEMBER 2004
Consequential amendments to Australian equivalents to IFRSs
The Board agreed that its general policy on consequential amendments to Australian
equivalents to IFRSs is to make those amendments using omnibus standards
numbered in a series using the year of issue and a generic title.
The Board noted that, consistent with the Australian government policy on publishing
legislation, the web site versions of the consequentially amended standards would
be updated with history notes identifying the sources of the amendments.
In addition, where the re