NEW IFAC GUIDANCE ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ADDRESSES RISKS AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

(New York/February 10, 2009) – As part of its ongoing commitment to support professional accountants in business and their organizations in enhancing governance and in improving organizational performance, the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a new International Good Practice Guidance document entitled Evaluating and Improving Governance in Organizations. The new guidance to professional accountants in business includes a framework, a series of fundamental principles, supporting guidance, and references on how they can contribute to evaluating and improving governance in organizations.

“This International Good Practice Guidance brings together globally recognized and applicable good practice principles on effective governance into an international benchmark for the accountancy profession,” says IFAC Chief Executive Ian Ball. “It will help PAIBs and their organizations to further improve their governance structures and processes – something critical to ensuring an organizations viability and accountability.”

This guidance is designed to complement existing governance codes, such as the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (2004), issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), by encouraging organizations to achieve a balance between conformance with rules and regulations and driving organizational performance. It also focuses on how to create sustainable stakeholder value in the form of good products or services, economic profitability, job security, safety, or other social or economical responsibilities.
A separate document, Preface to IFAC’s International Good Practice Guidance, sets out the scope, purpose, and due process of the committee’s International Good Practice Guidance series to which this guidance paper on governance belongs.

Both Evaluating and Improving Governance in Organizations and the Preface to IFAC’s International Good Practice Guidance can be downloaded free-of-charge from the PAIB section of the IFAC online bookstore at http://www.ifac.org/store. The PAIB Committee welcomes all feedback, which can be emailed to paib@ifac.org.
About IFAC

IFAC (http://www.ifac.org/) is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 157 members and associates in 122 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry and commerce. The organization, through its independent standard-setting boards, sets international ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting standards. IFAC also issues guidance to encourage high quality performance by professional accountants in business.

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