11 February 2010

ANGOA Submission: Review of the Financial Reporting Act

ANGOA was contracted late in 2009 by the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) to organise a series of workshops around the country, gathering feedback on Discussion Papers that had been produced by the Ministry and by the Accounting Standards Review Board (ASRB).

A total of 13 workshops were able to be organised in the November-December 2009 time frame. These were attended by an average of about 30 people each, although attendances varied widely. About 10% of attendees were from tangata whenua organisations.

MED and ASRB each received about 20 submissions on the discussion papers. The number may not seem high, but is seen by ANGOA as positive, reflecting growing recognition by sector networks that we need to increase public accountability. This is much more important than the limited, repetitive and often meaningless reports sought by many funders of services. For example, we need to increase the public's ability to compare information about different organisations who are competing for donations.

Over the next 12 months ANGOA will continue to work with MED and the ASRB on issues raised in the workshops, including who community organisations are really accountable to, what help such tools as standards and templates might be in increasing accountability to our communities, and how reporting on non-financial activities are best reported.

MED will be developing draft legislation based on the submissions received, and this will be out for public comment during 2010.

See the Final Submission by ANGOA.

Any queries, please contact
ANGOA Coordinator Dave Henderson at dave.henderson@angoa.org.nz
or Pat Hanley at lawler.hanley@slingshot.co.nz