The public refers to the people as a whole. It is not limited to those who have retained an accountant or are making use of a set of accounts. However, rarely will a particular accountancy service affect all members of the public in the same manner. Some accountancy services might impact a large segment of the public, such as the preparation of accounts for or the audit of a multinational business or government entity. Others might have a more limited effect. With respect to a particular accountancy service, it is perhaps useful to focus on the segment of the public that is directly or indirectly affected by such a service—in other words, the stakeholders. Even with such focus, the range of stakeholders might be very broad. For example, the accounts of a multinational producer of household products could be relevant to investors in securities issued by the corporation, consumers, legislators, government administrators, retired employees, suppliers of raw materials, distributors, wholesalers and others.
Accountancy services include, in one way or another, the preparation of financial accounts—including providing assurance on their quality. The IFAC currently is focused on defining the complex scope of the role of the “professional accountant”. For example, accountancy services include:
Developing systems and procedures that facilitate the preparation of accounts;
Measuring and recording inputs, outputs, resources, and obligations;
Designing accounts that will meet the needs of specific users;
Preparing accounts by using the relevant information and applying a financial reporting framework;
Providing assurance that accounts can be relied on, through audits and other assurance services; and
Assisting others in the interpretation and use of accounts.
Although accountancy services often encompass all of these components of financial reporting, they may also be more narrowly focused on individual elements such as taxes.
THE PUBLIC INTEREST
The PIOB helps protects the Public Interest in relation to the activities and responsibilities of the accountancy profession.
The PIOB believes that the accountancy profession can best contribute to the public interest by providing account-related information in which the public has confidence. This information will be most helpful if it is relevant to the users and is trusted by them as a faithful representation of the performance of the reported activities. Audits and other assurance services play an important role in meeting these criteria, by providing an objective and professional view in which users may have confidence.
The essential elements of the public interest, which have been described in the PIOB’s public reports, reinforce the ability of the profession to make such a contribution, as follows:
A focus on the users of accountancy services helps to ensure that information is relevant and that necessary conditions for trust are in place;
Appropriate international standards for audit and assurance practice, quality control, education and ethics help to ensure that information is relevant and will be prepared by accountants who can be trusted, because they meet these requirements;
Credible international standard setting helps to ensure that the standards are appropriate and furthers their adoption and implementation;
Adoption and implementation of international standards contributes to trust that work is to be done in a professional manner; and
Monitoring and evaluation of the adoption and implementation of standards—and their application by professional accountants—contributes to trust that work is actually being done in a professional manner.
