Publication: Bosnia and Herzegovina : Accounting and Auditing
Loading...
Published
2004-10-19
ISSN
Date
2013-07-24
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report provides an assessment of accounting, financial reporting, and auditing requirements and practices within the enterprise and financial sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Standards on Auditing (ISA), and the relevant portions of European Union (EU) law as benchmarks. This report shows that managers and auditors do not consistently comply with accounting and auditing requirements, which has an adverse impact on the economy. This report recommends significant changes to law and regulations to align the statutory framework with evolving internationally accepted practices, these changes include: strengthening the country's financial architecture and reducing the risk of financial market crises; contributing to foreign direct and portfolio investment and helping to mobilize domestic savings; facilitating the access of smaller-scale corporate borrowers; improving the assessment and collection of taxes on corporate profits; allowing investors to evaluate corporate prospects and make informed investment and voting decisions; allowing shareholders and the public at large to assess management performance; and facilitating Bosnia and Herzegovina's eventual integration into the European Union.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2004. Bosnia and Herzegovina : Accounting and Auditing. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14528 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Serbia and Montenegro - Republic of Serbia : Accounting and Auditing(Washington, DC, 2005-06-24)This Report provides an assessment of accounting and auditing standards and practices in Serbia. It uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA) as benchmarks, and draws on good practices in the field of accounting and audit regulation to assess the quality of financial information and make policy recommendations. It highlights significant weaknesses in the quality of financial information, which are detrimental to sustainable economic growth and may allow systemic risks to perpetuate. Further, it highlights significant shortcomings in the legal and regulatory framework and stresses that addressing those should be a priority for Serbia in order to create a robust legal foundation for the provision of reliable financial information to market participants. Moreover, this Report demonstrates that legal requirements and competence alone are not enough - the commitment to deploy such competence is also essential. Market forces provide certain positive incentives to comply with high standards, but experience in Serbia (and developed economies) suggests that countervailing disincentives operate to discourage such compliance. More emphasis should be placed on the deterrent incentives of robust monitoring and enforcement regimes to achieve a full and balanced combination of capacity and incentives. The recommendations of this Report are mutually supportive in some obvious ways and require a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to implementation. Also, the Report only sketches the policy recommendations to enhance the quality of corporate financial reporting. The Report strongly recommends that Serbia establishes a multidisciplinary National Steering Committee (NSC) for accounting and auditing reform to advise policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders regarding the implementation of the recommendations. Finally, the Report recommends that the members of the NSC should include senior representatives of stakeholder institutions with adequate support staff to follow through on the substantial reform agenda ahead.Publication Guide to Corporate Sector Accounting and Auditing in the Acquis Communautaire, 2nd Edition(World Bank, Vienna, 2011)This guide is designed to ensure that a comprehensive overview of the relevant provisions of the acquis communautaire is available to policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders in countries with a European vocation or those simply wishing to take the European Union (EU) regulatory model into account when devising their own national approaches. This guide outlines and summarizes the EU legislative framework governing corporate sector accounting and auditing. It is primarily intended for an audience with little prior knowledge of the EU. Consequently, rather than delving directly into the issues of accounting and auditing, the guide begins by giving a brief history and overview of the EU, its institutions and legislative processes in section one. In section two, the guide focuses on the development of the internal market, particularly in the areas of financial market integration and company law harmonization. Section three addresses the harmonization of accounting and auditing in the EU. Section four looks at the most pressing accounting and auditing issues for the EU.Publication Corporate Sector Accounting and Auditing in the Acquis Communautaire(World Bank, Vienna, 2016)This guide is designed to ensure that a comprehensive overview of the relevant provisions of the acquis communautaire is available to policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders in countries with a European vocation or those simply wishing to take the European Union (EU) regulatory model into account when devising their own national approaches. This guide outlines and summarizes the EU legislative framework governing corporate sector accounting and auditing. The guide begins by giving a brief history and overview of the EU, its institutions, and legislative processes in section one. In section two, the guide focuses on the development of the internal market, particularly in the areas of financial market integration and company law harmonization. Section three addresses the harmonization of accounting and auditing in the EU. Section four looks at the most pressing accounting and auditing issues for the EU.Publication Uruguay : Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC), Corporate Governance Country Assessment(Washington, DC, 2005-09)This report provides an assessment of Uruguay's corporate governance policy framework, enforcement, and compliance practices. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Uruguay. The paper discusses Uruguay's recent advances in financial and economic stability have given rise to an adequate basis for capital markets deepening and growth. However, these initial advances were jeopardized by a series of defaulting securities issuers and the 2002 financial instability episode which led to a perception of high risk and unpredictability of capital markets. The report then identifies several key steps to take in order to set strong corporate governance efficiency in the state owned financial sector. These steps include: improving corporate information, particularly ownership disclosure, related party transactions procedures, and financial reporting; promoting effective and active boards of directors; strengthening institutions, including the securities regulator, and the companies registry; and modernizing securities markets by strengthening intermediation and related regulations.Publication Georgia : Accounting and Auditing(Washington, DC, 2007-01)This report provides an assessment of accounting, financial reporting and auditing requirements and practices within the enterprise and financial sectors in Georgia. The report uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and draws on international experience and good practices in the field of accounting and audit regulation, including in European Union (EU) Member States, to assess the quality of financial information and make policy recommendations. The financial sector in Georgia is growing rapidly but remains largely underdeveloped, partly due to the lack of funding from local deposits and limited access to funding from foreign financial institutions. This report focuses on the principal reason for continuing with further reforms; specifically, on the benefits that the proposed reforms will bring to Georgia and its citizens. In this context, this report sketches policy recommendations to enhance the quality of corporate financial reporting and foster a financial reporting platform conducive to sustainable private and financial sector growth, thus increasing access to global financial markets and other tools of a market economy. The report specifically recommends: measures to encourage preparers of financial statements in Georgia to improve their accounting knowledge; that the GFPAA establish a recognized qualification at a lower level than its full qualification; that the GFPAA work to bring the quality of its Georgian language ACCA-based qualification up to the standard of the English language; that the GFPAA work closely with Georgian universities to coordinate syllabuses; and that key operational staff from regulators such as the NBG, NSC and SISSG are seconded to similar agencies abroad for 'on the job' training.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.