The Board of Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a technical cooperation project developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) to support improvements within the local Accountancy profession.The agreement for donor funding, which will be provided through the IDB s, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), was signed by IDB representatives and the President of the ICAJ, Mr L. Garth Kiddoe at the ICAJ Secretariat in April 2003. The cost of the three-year project is US$1.015 million of which US$665,000 will be provided by MIF and US$ 350,000 by the ICAJ as local counterpart funding.
According to Mr Kiddoe, the project, which will commence this year, is aimed at strengthening the accountancy profession in Jamaica. The project components include supporting the implementation and application of International Accounting Standards (IAS) and building adequate mechanisms for the enforcement of IAS and International Standards on Standards on Auditing (ISA). He noted that efforts are now being made to identify a full-time project manager to co-ordinate and monitor the implementation of the project.
The donor funding will support a technical programme to assist chartered accountants, financial sector professionals and others involved in the preparation or use of financial statements, in adopting IAS and ISA. IAS was adopted on July 1, 2002 concurrently with ISA as Jamaica s national accounting and auditing standards.
As a result of the demands of an increasingly complex global business environment, particularly, the global capital markets, there is the need for higher standards of disclosure with greater emphasis on more detailed financial reporting as is required under International Accounting Standards. In this regard, the project will result in improvements in the quality and usefulness of financial statements issued by Jamaican businesses, Mr Kiddoe stated.
Mr Oscar Spencer, Deputy Representative at the Inter-American Development Bank lauded the project as an innovative strategy to improve financial reporting and transparency in the private and public sectors. Mr Kiddoe added that the project would assist in rebuilding the confidence of the investing public as well as analysts and institutional investors in the financial reporting process. This is of direct relevance to quoted companies, banks, insurance companies and other entities that make their financial statements available to the public and foreign investors.
Also present at the signing were Miss Prunella Vassell, Treasurer and Chairman, Public Relations/Publications Committee, Mr Dennis Brown, Chairman, Accounting Standards Committee, Mr Leighton McKnight, Chairman, Audit Practice Committee and Mr Ralph Denize, Financial Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank.
