Auditor-General faces an extremely busy year

Auditor-General Dan Duguay

Friday, June 4, 2004

The next few months hold major changes for the Cayman Islands Audit Office, with the introduction of accrual accounting, said Auditor-General Dan Duguay.

“Our biggest priority for government now will be instituting the new accrual accounting system and producing timely financial statements at the end of the year,” he explained.

The Cayman Islands is one of a few countries worldwide that has introduced the accrual accounting system for government: “Fewer than a dozen countries use this, and the international accounting standards, for auditing.

“Cayman is even ahead of the European Union, which will change to international standards in 2005,” Mr Duguay said.

This progressiveness has its challenges however, as there are few trainers Cayman can use to prepare government’s accountants for the new system.

“Although all the accountants in the Audit Office are trained in accrual accounting and have worked with the system before, the biggest challenge is going to be for government to set policies defining the output for departments.”

Defining outputs is a new concept introduced under the accrual accounting system that, according to Mr Duguay, holds many benefits for departments, helping them to work towards their goals, while keeping track of spending and getting value for money.

Under the new system, governments will report not just how much money they spent but also what they accomplished with that money.

The Cayman Island Audit Office will support that process by providing an attestation that the output have been fairly measured.

Mr Duguay is confident about the new system: “Co-operation with government is remarkable and everyone is on the same page and has the same vision for the new system.

“It is very important for people to see the benefits of a system if you want to effectively implement it.”

With accrual accounting also comes the added workload of auditing all statutory bodies for the financial year starting 1 July.

“The benefit for government in bringing all auditing back to our office, lies in getting a standard view of everything as all activities will be consolidated in one financial statement,” explained Mr Duguay.

He said the Audit Office would continue using some private audit firms in the coming months, but would take final responsibility for all audits.

“As accountability in government is growing, I am looking forward to a great year of improvement,” Mr Duguay said.

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