GASB APPROVES STANDARD FOR COMBINATIONS, OPS TRANSFERS

Norwalk, Conn. -- The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has approved GASB Statement No. 69, Government Combinations and Disposals of Government Operations, which provides guidance for determining whether a specific government combination is a government merger, acquisition, or transfer of operations.

The standard also offers guidance on using carrying values (generally, the amounts recognized in the pre-combination financial statements of the combining governments or operations) to measure the assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities, and deferred inflows of resources combined in a government merger or transfer of operations.

In addition, the new standard provides guidance on measuring acquired assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities, and deferred inflows of resources based upon their acquisition values in a government acquisition. It also offers guidance on reporting the disposal of operations that have been transferred or sold.

The requirements of the statement are effective for periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2013, and should be applied on a prospective basis. Early application of the standard is encouraged.

Statement 69 will be available for download at no cost from GASB's Web site in February. Printed copies will be available for distribution soon thereafter.

STANDARD FOR BIZ SEGMENT REPORTING MOSTLY WORKS

Norwalk, Conn. -- The Financial Accounting Foundation has completed a post-implementation review of an accounting standard dating back to 1996 that aimed to improve the way public companies report financial information about their business segments, and found that it generally achieved that purpose, although some companies are being less than forthcoming about all of their business segments.

The FAF's post-implementation review team concluded that the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Statement No. 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, which was later codified as Accounting Standards Codification Topic 280, Segment Reporting, generally achieved its intended goal, although some stakeholders suggested improvements.