Search Results for: accountancy

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF has taken a lot of flack in recent years, accused of being slow, over-aggressive, secretive and even sloppy. But it has a tough job, made harder by the unwillingness of some EU member states to publicise their management of the EU funds they handle.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

WHEN DISASTER strikes, public generosity and government donations direct huge sums of money to help survivors and repair local economies. However, what happens next is out of the donors’ hands. They have to trust that the various aid agencies and organisations overseas are directing funds to bona fide projects and individuals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN’S Department for Communities and Local Government has been warned by the European Commission that it must sort out shortcomings in its auditing of European Union regional development spending in England or risk aid payments worth millions of Euros being suspended.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

SIIM Kallas is the first European Commission to have been appointed with the explicit job of fighting fraud in the European Union (EU). Every anti-fraud specialist knows that the complex and sometimes opaque procedures and administration of the EU can present a honeypot to fraudsters, and the EU has long had difficulty in nailing the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) is trying to boost financial discipline in the public services of Kosovo, teaching budgeting management and drafting skills to civil servants. The aim is to keep budgets and books tight from the start, so there are fewer messes to clear up later by the province’s government accounting and audit teams.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST annual report from European Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF has revealed how an accounts department staff member of a European Commission delegation to Africa diverted Euro 300,000 of EU money to his own bank account. The official, who had been recruited locally, "systematically falsified the signatures of duly authorised delegation staff on several cheques, payment orders and other accounting documents," noted OLAF, which has kept the country of operation under wraps.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

"WE will expedite the adoption of accounting standards in alignment with the International Accounting Standards", said India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a recent statement (18th March 06). With this, he cleared all doubt about his government’s support for the adoption in India of global accounting norms.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

AN ALL-INDIA topper in school, the best performer in 1980 within his country’s Chartered Accountants’ Institute, and the first to hoist the sail of accountancy-outsourcing to India: Sunil Goel, 49, combines his academic knowledge, business skills and passion for information technology to reap the benefits of globally expanding business.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH government financial controls will be examined by a special European Parliament committee of inquiry into the near collapse of Equitable Life, and the slashing of its pensions. The parliament has launched its probe following complaints from policy-holders, especially the around 15,000 non-British clients, mainly from Germany and Ireland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has attempted to allay fears arising from reports that it plans a significant rise in inspections of foreign audit firms in 2006, saying that while the number would rise this was due to "natural growth" and did not indicate any change of policy or any new concerns about foreign auditors.…