IASC under renewed attack
David Cairns, the former secretary general of the International Accounting Standards Committee, has criticised the global standard setter for not retaining its policy of disclosing donors' names.
The former head of the IASC spoke out following growing concerns that corporate donors could try to exert undue influence over the international standard setting process.
Cairns, IASC secretary general from 1985 to 1994, said he could not understand why the organisation had reverted to non-disclosure.
The IASC which began seeking funding from the then Big Six accountancy firms and corporate donors back in 1990 had always published a quarterly donors’ list in the IASC’s newsletter and annually in the review, according to Cairns.
He added: ‘I cannot for the life of me see why the Trustees did not carry on with the old (correct) policy.’
IASC Trustees led by Paul Volcker, are to hold a public meeting tomorrow ahead of issuing its annual review. The trustees will vote on whether to publish the list of donors who contributed to the IASC’s $18m budget in 2001.
IASB chairman Sir David Tweedie has vehemently defended the organisation’s funding structure, saying there has always been the intention to disclose names of donors.
But, he said ideally the organisation should be funded by a levy from the world’s stock markets.
‘We wanted a levy but it would have taken too long to get it. The alternatives are not available. How long will it take to get stock exchanges or governments to fund us’ Users don’t give money so we went to the companies,’ he added.
