Publication: Lessons Learned from the World Bank’s Accounting and Auditing ROSC Program
Loading...
Date
2004-09
ISSN
Published
2004-09
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper addresses challenges to the successful implementation of international accounting and auditing standards which have been observed by the World Bank when carrying out the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) accounting and auditing assessments. It describes the ROSC program, outlines the methodological approach followed, identifies problems common across several jurisdictions, and makes suggestions for initiatives that could enhance the implementation of international standards. The ROSC results show that governments have primarily concentrated on adopting legislation mandating or allowing the use of international standards, and the private sector has sought to increase the competence of individuals and firms to apply international standards. This paper provides an overview of the main program of Bank diagnostic work in the field of private sector financial reporting: (ROSC) It summarizes some of the main findings of the 38 assessments that have been carried out to date, with specific reference to the challenges to the successful implementation of international accounting and auditing standards. Attention is drawn to the need for international consensus on a comprehensive framework of principles for the regulation of accounting and auditing that also addresses issues of implementation, which is not covered by existing international accounting and auditing standards. The paper concludes by raising a number of other issues to be discussed and resolved going forward, if countries are to receive the support they need to successfully implement international standards and reap their full benefits.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Hegarty, John; Gielen, Frédéric; Hirata Baros, Ana Cristina. 2004. Lessons Learned from the World Bank’s Accounting and Auditing ROSC Program. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14354 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 Cape Verde Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-03)This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) provides an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing financial reporting infrastructure that underpins financial accounting and auditing practices in Cape Verde. The assessment focuses on six pillars of financial reporting infrastructure: statutory framework, professional education and training, accountancy profession, accounting standards, auditing standards, and monitoring and enforcement of the applicable standards. The main purpose of this assessment is to assist the development and implementation of a country action plan for strengthening institutional capacity with attendant effects on enhancing corporate financial reporting in Cape Verde. The findings reveal that Cape Verde has recognized the importance of a strong corporate financial reporting architecture. In terms of accounting and auditing standards, Cape Verde adapted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the private companies and fully adopted IFRS for banking and insurance institutions sector. However, there is no tradition of financial analysis in the country (except within the financial institutions when issuing credit) and no credit-rating agencies. The banks do not rely on corporate financial statements; generally, the lenders manage credit risks using collaterals. The Bank of Cape Verde mandated IFRS for banks and insurance companies in 2008. In addition, the capacity of regulators would be built to cope with the demands of IFRS-compliant financial reporting. The central bank would include in its scope the regulation of micro-finance institutions, which are currently unregulated. In order to improve the legal framework of corporate financial reporting, there is need to enact a Financial Reporting Act with focus on all regulatory aspects of accounting and auditing.Publication Argentina - Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) : Accounting and Auditing(Washington, DC, 2007-07)Strengthening corporate financial reporting is important for Argentina, as the country seeks to foster confidence in the local business community in order to stimulate investments, both local and foreign. In addition, strong corporate accounting practices enable local banks and financial institutions to monitor adequately their businesses risks, credit and otherwise, which is essential at a time when the Argentine banking sector emerges from the crisis triggered by the events of December 2001. Sound accounting and auditing is therefore essential to the stability of Argentina's banking sector. This report analyzes Argentina's corporate financial reporting and auditing practices with a view to supporting the Government's strategy to: (a) improve the investment climate for Argentine companies; (b) foster trade competitiveness by aligning the standards of reporting and governance with practices that are prevalent among the country's main trading partners; and (c) ensure greater transparency in both the private and public sectors. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and good international practice, particularly among the other large countries in Latin America, have been used as benchmarks for this exercise. A study of corporate governance practices was conducted in parallel, which findings complement those of the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) accounting and auditing.Publication The Republic of Montenegro : Accounting and Auditing(Washington, DC, 2007-05)This report provides an assessment of accounting, financial reporting, and auditing requirements and practices within the enterprise and financial sectors in Montenegro. It uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Standards on Auditing (ISA), and the relevant portions of the European Union (EU) body of law (also known as the acquis communautaire), as benchmarks.Publication Nicaragua : A Review of Accounting and Auditing Practices(World Bank, 2011-03-01)This ROSC analyzes accounting, financial reporting and auditing practices within the corporate sector in Nicaragua, using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA) as benchmarks, and drawing on international experience and good practice in those fields. Nicaragua remains among the poorest countries of the Western Hemisphere, with 46 percent of its five million people living below the poverty line. The 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$6.4 billion translates into a per-capita GDP of approximately US$1,000. After average GDP growth of about 3.6 percent during 2005-08, the global financial and economic crisis lead to a contraction in real GDP of 1.5 percent in 2009. Going forward, if the private sector is to serve as an engine of growth for the Nicaraguan economy, the country needs to follow high-level accounting and auditing practices and the highest standards of corporate governance. This ROSC supports three main development objectives: (a) improving Nicaragua's investment climate; (b) ensuring the stability and fostering the development of the local financial sector and (c) advancing governance and financial accountability in both the private and public sectors. The report seeks to help the authorities address these issues by: (i) improving the technical skills of accounting and audit practitioners, (ii) strengthening the regulatory framework governing accounting and audit practices in Nicaragua, and (iii) developing the institutional capacity of the country's accounting professional bodies.Publication Bulgaria : Accounting and Auditing(Washington, DC, 2008-12)This report provides an assessment of accounting, financial reporting, and auditing requirements and practices within the enterprise and financial sectors in Bulgaria. The accounting profession is fragmented. There are four different professional associations in the country with the result being low institutional capacity. Furthermore, there is no quality assurance, investigation and discipline process on the work of accountants and financial statement preparers. The auditing profession is better organized with one association mandated by law to manage access to the profession, training, the code of ethics and quality control. Professional education and training on international standards of accounting and auditing requires much improvement for students, accountants, auditors and tax inspectors. This improvement is needed at each of the universities, the professional bodies and the government.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.