New Public Sector Accounting Board Regulations

WHEREAS the Public Sector Accounting Board is considering new regulations regarding financial review of a local governments books; AND WHEREAS, over the past few years, the format used for the financial statements of local governments has changed resulting in a significant amount of staff time to coordinate data and create these statements, which are difficult for the public and elected representatives to understand; AND WHEREAS local governments have been advised that in 20062007 they will have to account for a municipalitys capital assets and assign a value to them resulting in each municipality conducting an inventory of every capital asset, including water lines, sewer lines, roadways, etc., to determine their length, diameter, material, etc., to establish a value; AND WHEREAS there are distinct differences between corporations that have shares publicly traded and the local government corporation that is responsible to the taxpayers including the following: 1. Local government does not have shares traded for profit. 2. The Board of Directors of a publicly traded corporation does receive financial benefit from a profitable operation. Councils, on the other hand, have no financial benefit from the decisions they make. 3. All of the transactions of a local government are transparent and public. Regulation is specific on reporting procedures. In other words, local governments are accountable to the Province and the Province does monitor that accountability. 4. Overstating local government assets does not benefit taxpayers or elected representatives so what would be the purpose? 5. Administrative staff are on fixed salaries and do not benefit from the surplus that the local government might achieve in a given year; AND WHEREAS these regulatory accounting initiatives are a knee jerk reaction to the Enron scandal and the situation that Ford Motor Company experienced in the United States regarding post retirement benefits and unfunded liability; AND WHEREAS the additional cost to complete a Control Audit will double the cost of accounting to local governments: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that local governments be exempt from the Public Sector Accounting Boards regulations and continue to present financial statements to their elected officials and the public in a manner which is clear, concise and easy to understand.