IFRS compliance is of utmost importance for CMA

Abdullah al Salmi, Executive president of Capital Market Authority (CMA), inaugurated a workshop on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) organised by Crowe Mak Ghazali, Chartered Accountants, at the Crowne Plaza Muscat on Monday.

Addressing the delegates, Al Salmi said that IFRS compliance is a key priority for the CMA to ensure prudent presentation of financial statements by business entities. CMA is closely monitoring the audit firms approved by the Authority on a continual basis and action is being taken on erring firms. The introduction of IFRS for SMES is also on the anvil, he added.

Earlier welcoming the participants, Davis Kallukaran, Managing Partner Crowe Oman said: “Article 30 of Chapter 4 of the Omani Law organising the Accountancy and Auditing profession stipulates that the financials issued by the business entities should be based on International Financial Reporting Standards. As such the accountants who present the accounts to the auditors and the Auditors themselves should be well aware of these reporting standards. If you are to be compliant with IFRS you have to comply with the standards in totality. Hence the need for updating the knowledge on IFRS.”

In a short of span of one year the business world has been hit by three game-changing accounting standards The introduction of these critical and sensitive standards are going to have a major impact on the financial reporting of all entities. These standards may require companies to transform their business processes, not just in finance and accounting, but also in IT, operations, tax, treasury and legal among others, said James Ravi, the lead faculty for the IFRS workshop.

CMA is closely monitoring the audit firms approved by the Authority on a continual basis and action is being taken on erring firms. The introduction of IFRS for SMES is also on the anvil