United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations: Corporate Conduct and the Public Interest by Khalil A Hamdani & Lorraine Ruffing

Author:Khalil A Hamdani & Lorraine Ruffing [Hamdani, Khalil A & Ruffing, Lorraine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Trade & Tariffs, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317528272
Google: 2PCTBwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 28022967
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

This decision ensured ISAR’s existence and continued UNCTC’s legacy on transparency and disclosure. ISAR conducts its cycle of annual meetings augmented by smaller consultative groups. ISAR’s productivity over its 32 years is the result of the pro bono contributions of the ISAR experts who participate in the consultative groups and draft the reports. ISAR’s success is also because it is a technical group whose members are responsible experts who always manage to find common ground.

ISAR not only addressed the issues contained on the original “minimum list” but also blazed new ground when it took up the subjects of environmental accounting, accounting for joint ventures, the role of accounting in financial crises, the global accounting qualification and curricula, accounting by SMEs, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility. ISAR began its work at a critical period when the infrastructure of international financial reporting was being created. While it did not assume a standard-setting role, it was able to develop guidelines for areas not addressed by others and make them part of the global reporting framework. Its work has influenced other international bodies and forced them to take up issues that they would rather have postponed or ignored altogether. Thus, ISAR, despite not being given a standard-setting mandate, has had an influence on the international standard-setting agenda. Consequently, ISAR’s guidelines or soft law morphed into harder law at the national and international level.

ISAR’s sessions are the best attended in UNCTAD. The reason for its popularity and why it survived is that it is still the only open and representative intergovernmental forum on accounting. Other accounting forums have very limited membership. In an intergovernmental body policy makers have a voice in choosing subjects relevant to them. ISAR brings together issues that are usually discussed separately such as financial reporting, environmental and social accounting, and corporate governance. ISAR keeps its experts abreast of current issues while at the same time allowing them to develop guidance that is suited to their own pressing needs. Nelson Carvalho, the Brazilian delegate, who chaired a number of ISAR sessions, aptly expressed the value of ISAR to developing countries:

Developing countries and economies in transition have needs in the field of accounting standards and financial reporting. However, they should be given the opportunity to say what their needs are, and work side-by-side with developed countries to see that those needs are met, rather than merely being told how they can be met, from the unilateral view of whoever decides to tell them. These needs must be debated in the appropriate fora, and none is wider, more representative, and therefore more legitimate, than ISAR.34

The early frictions between international organizations have evaporated and a division of labor has been worked out between the public sector and the private sector which has benefitted developed and developing countries. As international standard setting is dominated by the private sector, ISAR provides a counter-balance to an exclusive market-oriented approach. On the one hand the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) concentrates mostly on formulating technical financial standards for large, listed enterprises that include disclosure and valuation rules.

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