Brussels, 04/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission noted progress made so far in modernising the Commission's internal accounting system to be completed in 2005, in compliance with the provisions of the Financial Regulation. Commissioner Michaele Schreyer announced that the programme has been "very largely respected". She explained that conceptual work on many elements of the project has been successfully completed and that the implementation of information technology developments has begun. The project is an ambitious one as the Commission hopes its system will, by 2005, comply with the highest international accounting standards, and especially the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), fixed by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (standards that most Member States have not yet complied with). The new Financial Regulation provides for the establishment, by 2005, of accrual accounting (the recording of accounting events when they occur, instead of recording cash when it is received or paid, and evaluating assets and liabilities at the year end only).
The latest report from Ms Schreyer's services on this subject specify that the accrual accounting standards have largely been defined, in the same way as the means allowing to ensure that all Commission accounting procedures comply with these rules. In order to take the needs of the end-users into account, the current local systems have been analysed and new requirements for the management of day-to-day activities have been incorporated into the project. The IT architecture has been defined and software capacities have been tested.
In 2004, the Commission will have the task of implementing IT developments for the central accounting system and preparing the introduction of accrual accounting. Each Commission service contributes to this by drawing up inventories of assets and liabilities, by setting in place a database on all the Commission's contractors and recipients of grants, and by introducing new accounting procedures. The next progress report will be delivered by end April.