Key IASB project is 'not under-staffed'

The board accidentally published an ‘observer note’ on one of its meetings recently. The note, written by technical experts at the IASB, made candid admissions about how the project to overhaul current off-balance sheet rules lost momentum because of staff turnover and ‘relative inexperience’.

The note also recommended the urgent appointment of a senior figure to take charge of the off-balance sheet accounting project.

‘We cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the newly assigned staff to get up to speed,’ the note said.

The IASB this week played down the comments: ‘On this occasion the observer note was erroneously posted before the board paper had been finalised. In order that the observer note is in sync with the actual board paper discussed at the meeting we took it down and hope to post the finalised version early next week… The report in no way criticised staff performance ­ it simply referenced the challenges matching resources with a demanding schedule of high priority projects,’ an IASB spokesman said.

The IASB’s staffing issues were also raised at a meeting of its Standards Advisory Council in November last year.

At the time, the former chairman of the foundation that oversees the IASB’s work. Philip Laskawy admitted: ‘The size of the technical staff is well below probably what it should be.’