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Abu-Ghazaleh calls for knowledge transformation of the accounting profession
04-Apr-2018
Dubai – At the IFRS Standards Conference, HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh delivered a speech on the low-pace development of the accounting profession due to its practice of cautious change.
Through his speech as a keynote speaker, he addressed his relationship with all international and UN accounting agencies. As chairperson of some of these agencies, he and the team were keen on change and achieved some success in this regard, however, they also faced some obstacles and failure due to resistance for change.
Abu-Ghazaleh stated that: “All fields, activities and institutions worldwide have started transforming to book a place in the knowledge world. Therefore, the tardiness of the accounting profession in this transformation is not accepted anymore.” Accordingly, he called on the IFAC to form a multilateral work team to develop a knowledge transformation program for international institutions, draft accounting standards for private and public sectors and audit and professional conduct standards that comply with and meet all needs of the economic, educational and government knowledge society.
He also stressed that: “This knowledge era requires accounting and audit standards especially for the knowledge companies and products.” So, he again called on the IFAC and IFRS Foundation to initiate the formation of a multilateral work team to review the requirements of the knowledge era in terms of accounting, auditing, reporting and evaluation.
Abu-Ghazaleh suggested selecting the SCOPA to represent the Arab region in this team because of its technical and representing capabilities, its active role both in KSA and the Arab region as a whole and its proven ability to develop and control the quality in controlling accounting and auditing offices.
The conference was held in Dubai on 5th and 6th of March in the presence of many financial officers, decision makers, representatives of Gulf banks and financial institutions as well as financial and banking experts from different GCC countries.
Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh’s speech introduced the invaluable role he played in changing the accounting concept particularly during his time as a board member in IFAC during the periods 1987 – 1990 and 1992 – 1994.
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also referred to his experience with Harvard University which was first in developing two systems; one for calculating the mileage for airline flights and another for calculating the scores at hotels in 1995, noting that this should have been the role of both IFAC and IFRS.
Abu-Ghazaleh also presented his focus on accounting standards development while he was chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) from 1995-1996 and the UN Trust Fund. He also referred to his experience with the World Trade Organization during the period 2012 – 2014 in developing regulations that determine the future of international trade where he called for the development of commercial basics and standards for digital products and the economy.
The conference is an opportunity for different banks and financial institutions in GCC countries to learn more about the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) for banks and financial institutions which have become standardized in many countries following the adoption of the nine operational requirements of these standards.
The adoption of IFRS led to the remarkable development of banks in the GCC countries with the aim of introducing structural and organizational changes to achieve more strength and success.