GASB adds to 2008 agenda

With governmental accounting changing fast in a fast-changing financial environment, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has added projects to its agenda to deal with the increasing variety of public/private partnerships, the common presentation of financial statements for reporting units that do not qualify as reporting entities, and for developments in pension accounting.The decision to review existing standards on post-employment benefits was based on an extensive research project that began in early 2006.

Making it clear that the board would not necessarily make any fundamental changes to existing standards on post-employment benefits, GASB director of research and technical activities David Bean affirmed that the project follows a policy of reviewing standards after they have been implemented for several years — in this case, the 12 years since GASB Statements 25 and 27, both on accounting for pensions, were issued.