Abstract
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recently issued Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 69 [1996a]. This establishes two parallel hierarchies—one for the public sector (headed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)) and one for the private sector (headed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)). Formerly, governmental accountants had to absorb all FASB pronouncements and then ignore some on command of the GASB. Under the provisions of SAS No. 69, only those future FASB pronouncements that the GASB specifically makes applicable to government entities will be of primary concern to governmental accountants. However, some aspects of the new standard are confusing. The GASB hierarchy of authoritative sources should be understood as having six, not five, levels and some applications—such as accounting for proprietary funds of government entities—need to be clarified by future GASB pronouncements. This study first highlights the provisions of SAS No. 69. Then, based upon the responses to a survey questionnaire, it discusses how the new SAS will affect users of the new authoritative pronouncement.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Accounting Principles Board Statement No. 4.Basic Concepts and Accounting Principles Underlying Financial Statements of Business Enterprises, New York, NY: AICPA, 1970.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Codification of Statements on Auditing Standards.The Meaning of ‘Present Fairly in Conformity With Generally Accepted Accounting Principles’ in the Independent Auditor's Report, Chicago, IL: Commerce Clearing House, 1996a, pp. 347–52.
__.Special Reports, Chicago, IL: Commerce Clearing House, 1996b, pp. 509–44.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.Professional Ethics for Certified Public Accountants, New York, NY: AICPA, 1970.
__.Code of Ethics as Amended, Rule 203—Accounting Principles, New York, NY: AICPA, January 12, 1988.
Governmental Accounting Standards Board.GASB No. 12, Disclosure of Information on Post Employment Benefits Other Than Pension Benefits by State and Local Government Employers, Stamford, CT: GASB, 1990.
National Council on Governmental Accounting.Statement 1, Governmental Accounting and Financial Reporting Principles, Washington, DC: NCGA, 1979.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reinstein, A., Lander, G.H. Governmental entities: Compliance and performance auditing considerations. International Advances in Economic Research 3, 206–216 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294941
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294941