Malta’s finance minister Edward Scicluna has been presented with a report setting out how the country can manage the transition to accrual-based public sector accounting standards.

The report was prepared with CIPFA’s input following a workshop held in April on International Public Sector Accounting Standards. It is intended to provide a ‘gap analysis’ of the transition to Ipsas and completes the scoping phase of the project.

The Maltese government said the report provided a ‘solid basis for planning the adoption and implementation of Ipsas across government departments’.

Scicluna said he was in favour of using Ipsas as a proxy for future European Union-wide harmonised accrual-based accounting standards, known as Epsas.

He added that Ipsas would also help strengthen Malta’s current public sector accounting processes.

The report was presented to Scicluna at a meeting at the Maltese Ministry of Finance on October 24. Also present were Noel Camilleri, Malta’s accountant general, and Ian Carruthers, CIPFA’s policy and technical director.

By Vivienne Russell

– Monday, 28 October 2013