Proceedings

3. CURRENT PROBLEMS OF THE NATIONAL STRATEGY
FOR IMPROVING THE FINANCIAL REPORTING OF THE PRIVATE
SECTOR ENTITIES
As noted, one of the goals of the National Strategy for improving the financial
reporting refers to the compliance of the Romanian accounting with the applicable
European Union regulations.
At the EU level, by the Regulation no. 1606/2002 (the so-called IFRS Regulation), the
mandatory IFRS application for the elaboration of the consolidated financial
statements by the listed companies was agreed only for those IFRS approved at the
Community level, by the European Commission's regulations, starting the 1 st of
January 2005. The Member States had the option of extending the scope of
application of the IFRS for other categories of companies, and for the individual
financial statements.
In what follows, we intend to present the sticking points, actual and potential, of the
National Strategy for improving the financial reporting of the private economic
entities, as identified by the representatives of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund in the ROSC report on accounting and auditing, published in
December 2008 (World Bank, 2008):
� the process of setting the accounting regulations in Romania is supervised by the
Ministry of Finances, which issues the accounting regulations for the Romanian
trade sector. The main accounting rules are discussed in the Accounting and
Financial Reporting Council (CCRF), which brings together the key monitoring
bodies and the stakeholders interested in the Romanian financial and regulating
system. CCRF is chaired by the Ministry of Finances and includes
representatives from: BNR, CNVM, CSA, CSSPP (Private Pension System
Supervisory Commission), the Ministry of Justice, CAFR, CECCAR (The Body
of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania), academics and professional
associations for the commercial sector. However, CCRF doesn’t bring together
representatives of the banking and insurance sector, any of those who elaborate
or use the financial statements or the technical staff of the member firms of the
international audit networks;
� compared to the Ministry Order no. 94/2001, Accounting regulations
harmonized with the European directives and the International Accounting
Standards, the explicit reference to the IFRS referential was removed from the
Ministry Order no. 3055/2009, Accounting regulations in accordance with the
EU directives. The absence of an explicit reference to the IFRS, when the
Romanian Accounting Regulations don’t provide detailed guidance, is seen by
the accounting and auditing professions and by those who prepare the financial
statements as a problem. According to the Ministry Order no. 94/2001, the
IAS/IFRS referential was applied when no other specific treatment was
indicated. In the content of the Ministry Order no 3055/2009, there is no explicit
reference to the IFRS.
� if the banks and the listed companies prepare consolidated financial statements
according the IFRS approved by the European Commission, the banks and the
listed companies without subsidiaries are not required to prepare financial
statements in accordance with the approved IFRS. This reality leads to a
potential lack of comparability between the listed entities and the banks: while
~ 140 ~