At its last meeting in June 2015, the IPSAS Board agreed that a first draft of an ED for a revised Cash Basis IPSAS should be prepared for their next meeting in September.
This revised draft is to include the following key revisions to the current IPSAS:
(a) Consolidation: is to be encouraged (not required) for all controlled entities.
(b) External Assistance: requirements for disclosure of cash external assistance will be retained, but other requirements only to be encouraged and reduced (so project aid not required to be reported).
(c) Third Party Payments: Requirements to report third party payments by parties outside the economic entity to be encouraged only and so will not now be a requirement.
The Cash Basis IPSAS was first issued in January 2003, but despite many valiant attempt, not a single government in the world has actually adopted key aspects of this standard. The Standard is very clear that all of part one has to be adopted before a government can claim to have adopted the Standard. However, the inclusion of the above requirements meant that this was not a practical proposition.
The IPSAS Board have finally seen sense and hopefully the revised Cash Basis IPSAS can easily be adopted by many governments across the Global South who have very sensibly said Oxi Oxi Oxi to the accrual basis for the public sector.
