AICPA Issues Auditing Interpretations for GASB Pension Standards

The American Institute of CPAs’ Auditing Standards Board has issued three auditing interpretations in response to the new Governmental Accounting Standards Board pension standards.

The AICPA noted that there are numerous accounting and auditing issues facing governmental multiple-employer pension plans and the government employers that participate in them as a result of the new GASB standards.

The three auditing interpretations apply to the following sections of SAS No. 122, Statements on Auditing Standards: Clarification and Recodification, as amended: section 500, Audit Evidence; section 600, Special Considerations—Audits of Group Financial Statements (Including the Work of Component Auditors), and section 805, Special Considerations—Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts, or Items of a Financial Statement (AICPA, Professional Standards).

With the new interpretations, the AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board aims to assist both auditors of governmental plans and participating employers in their audits of entities that are implementing the new standards. The interpretations, along with recent white papers related to cost-sharing plans (issued by the AICPA State and Local Governments Expert Panel), are available in the GASB Matters section of the AICPA’s Governmental Audit Quality Center site.