This Exposure Draft deals with two matters on which professional accountants in business most often seek assistance in practice—their responsibility to produce financial reports that are faithful representations of the economics of transactions, and pressure to breach the fundamental ethical principles.

Among the proposed changes are:

This Consultation Paper seeks input from stakeholders on approaches that could be taken to improve the clarity and usability of the Code, thereby facilitating its adoption, effective implementation, and consistent application.

Among the various matters on which the Ethics Board is consulting are:

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board^® (IPSASB^®) has released for comment a Consultation Paper, The Applicability of IPSASs to Government Business Enterprises and Other Public Sector Entities.

Government Business Enterprises (GBEs) are generally commercially oriented entities that can have a significant impact on a government’s financial performance and financial position.

The At-a-Glance summary document provides an overview of the Consultation Paper.

The proposals in the Exposure Draft respond to stakeholder concern about the appearance of independence and the need to ensure that the threats created by the long association of audit firm personnel with an audit client are appropriately addressed on all audit engagements.

The proposals aim to strengthen the independence provisions in the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code). Among the proposed changes are:

Exposure Draft (ED) 55, Improvements to IPSASs 2014, proposes changes based on amendments from the International Accounting Standards Board's annual improvements and narrow scope amendments projects. ED 55 proposes improvements to four standards (IPSAS 1, IPSAS 17, IPSAS 28, and IPSAS 31).

The International Accounting Education Standards Board™ (IAESB™) has undertaken a project that has improved the relevancy, clarity, and consistency of its standards as well as their applicability to IFAC members and associates.

It is proposing a revised Framework for International Education Standards (the “Framework”), which sets out the concepts that underlie the IAESB’s International Education Standards™ (IES™).

The proposed changes aim to enhance the independence provisions in the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code) by:

• Providing additional guidance and clarification regarding what constitutes management responsibility, including enhanced guidance regarding how the auditor can better satisfy itself that client management will make all judgments and decisions that are the responsibility of management, when the auditor provides non-assurance services to an audit client; 

This Exposure Draft seeks views from stakeholders in relation to the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) that address disclosures in the audit of financial statements. The proposals include new guidance to clarify expectations of auditors when auditing financial statement disclosures.

This Exposure Draft seeks views from stakeholders in relation to proposed International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 720 (Revised), The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Other Information. This re-exposure of the proposed revised ISA provides requirements and guidance on the scope of other information, the auditor’s work effort related to other information, and the auditor’s associated reporting responsibilities.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has published its Strategy Consultation, which includes a consultation on its work program for 2015-2019.