Interpretation and Application of IPSAS

3 The IPSASB

During the last two decades the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) and the IPSAS that it establishes have increasingly become a point for international standardization and reference within the area of public sector accounting. The IPSASB is, today, an independent standard-setting board under the auspices of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). IFAC and its standard-setting boards are becoming an increasingly integral player in global financial governance processes (Humphrey et al., 2006).

IFAC is an international organization, a private standard-setting organization, for the accounting profession that was established back in 1977 (see Humphrey and Loft, 2008; 2007; Rocher, 2010, for detailed historical accounts). The original constitution of the IFAC presented stated that the role of the IFAC was the development and enhancement of a co-ordinated worldwide accounting profession with harmonized standards (Rocher, 2010; Dye, 1988; Humphrey et al., 2006).

To enable it to reach its target objectives, the IFAC established four committees in the year of its foundation.¹ The committees were supporting IFACs objectives through developing international guidelines, standards, and application notes. At that time, however, none of these four committees was devoted to public sector accounting. It was not until June 1986 that the IFAC created a fifth committee dedicated to accountancy issues in the public sector, namely the Public Sector ...