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History Of Board Deliberations Reverse Chronology

FASAB's work on its conceptual framework is intended to ensure that federal financial accounting standards are based on a sound framework of objectives and concepts regarding the nature of accounting, financial statements, and other communications methods.

The overall conceptual framework should: provide structure by describing the nature and limits of federal financial reporting,
identify objectives that give direction to standard setters, define the elements critical to meeting financial reporting objectives and describe the statements used to present elements, identify means of communicating information necessary to meeting objectives and describe when a particular means should be used, and enable those affected by or interested in standards to understand better the purposes, content, and characteristics of information provided in federal financial reports.

FASAB's review of the objectives of federal financial reporting and of the objectives of FASAB itself comprises one project. The review focuses on the first two objectives listed above for the overall conceptual framework. In the process, it should also address to some extent the last objective listed. The Board discussed possible “comparative advantages” of federal accounting in general, and of GAAP reporting in particular. The Board received material on some related concepts, including “completeness,” “neutrality,” “economic reality,” and “representational faithfulness.”

The Board requested a “white paper” that will provide information about the reporting that is done by federal agencies and will summarize information about the comparative advantage of accounting and financial reporting. It will mention the roles played by audit, the accrual accounting model, and the Board's independence. Among other topics, the paper will also address fair presentation in conformance with a specified “accounting hierarchy,” and whether this hierarchy should be part of the federal accounting literature.

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