Conceptualización del Bienestar

While the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission were an important event that initiated steps towards IPSAS convergence within the country, there were also some networks on the global front that further accelerated the movement. The AGAOA was formed in 2004 by the member countries to share their experiences in the field of public financial management, accrual accounting, risk based audit and internal controls (AGAOA, 2011). Representatives from the respective ministries of finance of all the member countries constitute the association. The Indian INGAF (Institute of Government Accounts & Finance) which is a training institute of the Ministry of Finance, is secretariat of the association (INGAF, 2011). AGAOA has been receiving financial assistance under the technical assistance IDF grant from the WB for improving the public financial management system in member countries. All the seminars and conference held by the AGAOA are attended by a WB official as an observer (AGAOA, 2011).

The key points to be noted here are firstly the coming together of accountants representing governments of different countries in the region to address common issues and the presence of WB at these discussions. Both these points essentially indicate the transnational nature of national decision-making process. The first point represents local actors transcending national boundaries to communicate with local actors of neighbouring national decision-making arenas to arrive at solutions to common national issues. However, the presence of WB provides a different significance to the cooperation amongst these local accounting bodies. It can be inferred that as the WB is a donor to all member countries (AGAOA, 2011), its influence is probably obligatory on the AGAOA

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members which leads to the possibility that this platform/cooperation is a transnational regional strategy (Djelic,2014) used by the WB to influence the national accounting policies of member countries. Hence this event helps to gain understanding of differences in the nature of transnational influences that shape the decision-making process.

Networks involving national and international professional associations and institutes also had influences in shaping the decision-making process. In 2004, a professional development programme on ‘Public Sector Accounting and Financial Reporting’ was organised by the office of CAG of India, the Institute of Public Auditors of India (IPAI) and ICGFM (GASAB, 2004a). In addition to members of the host organisations, it was attended by chairman of IFAC Public Sector Committee (PSC), delegates representing different fields of accounting, auditing and financial management of the union, and provincial and urban local governments, members of RBI, members of public sectors entities, credit rating organisations, private consulting agencies and members of international financial aid agencies.

The main focus of this meeting was modernising accounting and financial reporting functions in the country. A wide range of issues regarding government financial management such as accounting, auditing, budgeting, debt administration, information technology, tax administration and treasury management were also discussed (GASAB, 2004b). In his inaugural address on this occasion, the CAG of India specifically cited the ‘Framework of Accounting Standards’ for governments issued by the International Organisation for Supreme Audit (INTOSAI) and cash and accrual based accounting standards issued by IFAC’s PSC to be valuable sources of guidance on framing government accounting standards (GASAB, 2004a). The CAG stated,

“We, in the Public Sector in India, are beneficiaries of the substantial contribution made by the Public Sector Committee of the International Federation of Accountants in the field of standard setting” (GASAB, 2004a).

The evidence of transnational influence through such transnational communications and the manner in which they influence national accounting standard-setting is clear in this case. The findings support the theoretical framework of transnational governance with central focus on transnational communications.

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The year 2005 also saw events and developments on the local and transnational front that kept the convergence decision-making process moving ahead. On the local front, GASAB in accordance with the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission, held meetings with its members to discuss the matter and constituted two committees to handle the creation of the roadmap and preparation of the operational framework. The members of GASAB include representatives from railways, post & telecom, MoF, presidents of the two main professional bodies, ICAI and Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, and director of NCAER (GASAB, 2008). In December 2005, the committee dealing with roadmap made several recommendations during subsequent meetings. It was suggested that the departments of accounts for defence, railway, post & telecom and provincial governments should preferably draw up their own detailed roadmaps for their jurisdictions taking into consideration the difference in the nature of these departments’ functions and their level of preparedness (GASAB, 2008a).

On the transnational front also there were important sources of influence that were promoting convergence with international accounting standards. The ADB and the OECD in collaboration with the UN, in 2005, organised an anti-corruption initiative in Pakistan where the significance and necessity of adopting international accounting standards in both the private and public sectors was emphasised. Comparing the two sectors, it was noted that,

“The number of private sector initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region …… has increased over the past few years. On the other hand, governments have not focused as much on establishing and enforcing company management and accounting standards” (ADB, 2005).

The initiative was organised as a series of training seminars. This was the 3rd _master

training seminar and India was represented at the seminar by a senior member of the central government (ADB, 2005). It is also interesting to note that participants who are Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients9 _{are funded by the initiative and India}

is among countries receiving funds to attend the seminars (OECD, 2012). Hence it can be observed that the sources of transnational influences that were pushing for convergence were important in terms of their relationship with India. In addition to OECD, the ADB is also an important donor agency which has provided financial and technical support to

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projects in India in the past and continues to do so. For example, financial support was provided by ADB in 2005 for the ‘Multitranche Financial Facility (MFF) - Rural Roads Sector II Investment Program’ and the ‘Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Program’ (ADB, 2012).

In 2007/08, the committees constituted by the GASAB drew up a roadmap and an operational framework for transition to accrual accounting. The roadmap proposed that the transition should take place in three stages;

a) Value addition within the current system by supplementary statements on salaries, subsidies and pension. This could be a short term activity.

(b) Value addition in the current system with slight alterations to enable greater disclosures such as arrears in revenue and committed liabilities which could be a medium term activity.

(c) Attaining the required accounting system in the long-term based on accrual system.

The roadmap proposed a period of ten to twelve years as a reasonable time frame to achieve the targets keeping in view the differences in the extent to which different departments were prepared for the transition.

Although the committee dealing with preparation of roadmap suggested that individual departments draw out their own detailed roadmap based on the needs and specific characteristics of their jurisdictions, it did lay out a broad framework of activities/work items that could be used by the former to create a detailed roadmap. Some of these activities included creating a task force/cell for implementation and coordination, building adequate database essential for implementation of accrual accounting and conducting pilot studies on a few ministries/provincial governments to assess the gap between the existing system of accounting and the proposed one (GASAB, 2008a). The preparations of the local actors for IPSAS convergence were even at this point backed by IFIs.

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