We held our third Board meeting of 2026 from September 15-17, in Accra, Ghana. Thank you to the African Union Commission and the Government of Ghana for hosting our meeting and for including us in an excellent outreach event, From Standards to Systems: Building Africa’s IPSAS Implementation Architecture for Transparent, Comparable and Trusted Public Financial Reporting.
What's next for the IPSASB? Following feedback from constituents to the Work Program Consultation, the Board has added several future priority projects to our Work Program related to financial reporting, post-implementation reviews, and sustainability reporting. The Board also responded to the clear call for greater focus on maintenance of existing standards and developing additional implementation support materials. Keep an eye out for our upcoming Consultation Summary to learn more details about the feedback received and how that input was considered by the Board in making decisions on project prioritization.
Through engaging discussions, the Board established a clear vision for its proposals on its next Strategy, centering on stakeholders and their needs. To reflect our strategic evolution as an organization, the Board considered a potential new Strategic Objective that continues to emphasize the delivery of global standards while highlighting the more active approach proposed to support adoption and implementation, as well as championing why IPSASB Standards matter for taking informed actions. The Board will continue its work on the proposed strategy and is aiming to approve a Strategy Consultation in December.
We reached an important milestone with the Board’s approval of the Final Pronouncement, Current Operational Value for Intangible Assets (Amendments to IPSAS 31). This approval closes the final chapter in the long-running measurement project, and these amendments now provide a current value measurement option for intangible assets held for operational capacity. The effective date is January 1, 2029, with earlier adoption permitted.
The Board approved Linkages Between IPSAS Standards and the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (Amendments to IPSAS 22). The final pronouncement provides practical guidance to help statisticians and accountants work together to determine how IPSAS Standards-based accounting data can be used to meet statistical reporting needs. By identifying areas of alignment, presentation differences and additional data requirements, the amendments support this collaboration and help ensure that accounting information can effectively contribute to the compilation of government finance statistics.
The Board approved Improvements to IPSAS Accounting Standards – Volume 10, which introduces minor improvements to IPSAS Standards to clarify existing requirements and support their consistent application. The Board also approved Definition of an Operation and Recognition of Acquired Liabilities and Contingent Liabilities (Amendments to IPSAS 40) to enhance the guidance on the definition of an operation and recognition of liabilities. Both pronouncements are effective January 1, 2028.
The Board discussed the analysis and recommendations summarized by staff from the recent IPSASB Application Group meeting. Based on this analysis, the IPSASB decided to conduct research into potential amendments to IPSAS 47, Revenue, to address the application of the financial instruments-related IPSAS Standards by analogy to tax receivables. The Board also agreed to develop implementation support materials on this topic.
The IPSASB received a preliminary summary of feedback from constituents to ED 97, IPSAS Practice Statement, Making Materiality Judgments. Respondents generally supported the project, but requested further adaptation to reflect the public sector context and additional public sector-specific examples. The IPSASB will continue its discussions and review a detailed analysis of the responses in December.
Our next Board meeting will be hosted by the Asian Development Bank and held December 8-10, in Manila, Philippines.
Recordings of the meetings are available on our YouTube channel.
The 2026 Edition of the Handbook of International Public Sector Accounting Pronouncements is out now. It contains the complete suite of IPSAS Standards published as of January 31, 2026.
In collaboration with us, IFAC has published a resource, Implementing International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS): IFAC Tools, a compilation of our resources designed to help governments and public sector entities adopt and implement IPSAS Standards and help Professional Accountancy Organizations (PAOs) advocate for their use.