The transition of Government public sector accounting to accrual reporting was discussed by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna and Ian Carruthers, Policy and Technical Director for the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and Accountant General Noel Camilleri.

During the meeting, the minister was presented with a report outlining the requirements for such a transition.

The report is intended to complete the scoping phase of the project and provides a solid basis for planning the adoption and implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (Ipsas) across Government departments.

The European Commission in Malta last March published a report to the Council and European Parliament entitled ‘Towards Implementing Harmonised Public Sector Accounting Standards in Member States: The suitability of Ipsas for member states’.

The main conclusions were that there is a need for harmonised accrual based public sector accounting standards and although Ipsas could not be implemented in EU states in their current status, they represented an indisputable reference framework for potential EU harmonised accrual based public sector accounting standards.

The Finance Minister expressed himself in favour of working towards using Ipsas as a proxy for future European Public Sector Accounting Standard requirements, recognising this as a long-term corporate project that would impact people, processes and Government systems while also strengthening Malta’s public sector accounting processes.