CIPFA were delighted to host his Excellency, Dato’ Haji Che Pee bin Samsudin, the Accountant General for Malaysia and his senior team in early November.
The study tour was to learn about practical implementation challenges of moving to accruals accounting and is part of ongoing support we have provided. The Malaysians plan to implement MIPSAS-based accounts by 2017.
The team met with representatives from UK Debt Management Office to learn about financial assets and liabilities; HM Revenue and Customs to find out about where to start when developing accruals accounts for tax income; and discussed the UK Whole of Government Accounts consolidation and the intricacies of pensions accounting. Quite a packed couple of days. We also showcased our online IPSAS training course developed to support countries adopting accruals.
Manj Kalar, CIPFA Technical Manager, said: ‘A key observation from the delegation was the importance of having the right blend of technical and behavioural skills. An ability to ask “so what?” when developing accounting policies to implement and being able to answer in a simple and engaging way was seen as important as technical skills.’