EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2008 No. 146

 

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Finance and Deregulation

 

Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997

Financial Management and Accountability Amendment Regulations 2008 (No. 4)

The Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (FMA Act) provides a framework of rules for the proper management of public money and public property by Chief Executives and officials of FMA Act agencies.

Subsection 65(1) of the FMA Act provides that the Governor-General in Council may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the FMA Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the FMA Act.

Section 5 of the FMA Act provides that for the purposes of the FMA Act, a prescribed Agency means a body, organisation or group of persons prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of that definition. Agencies are prescribed in Schedule 1 to the Financial Management and Accountability Regulations 1997 (the Principal Regulations).

The Amendment Regulations prescribed the Office of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and the Office of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB).

 

The governance arrangements of AASB and AUASB were amended by the Governance Review Implementation (AASB and AUASB) Act 2008, and involve moving the two bodies from the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 (CAC Act) to the FMA Act. Consequently, AASB and AUASB were prescribed under the FMA Act.

 

The Boards of the AASB and AUASB will not be required to prepare financial statements as required of FMA agencies. These statements will be prepared by the prescribed agency in each case: Office of the Australian Accounting Standards Board for the AASB and Office of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board for the AUASB.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (LI Act). In accordance with section 17 of the LI Act, the Department of the Treasury and the former CAC Act bodies were consulted in relation to the prescribing of AASB and AUASB. External consultation did not occur due to the regulation only affecting government agencies.

 

The Amendment Regulations commenced upon the commencement of the Governance Review Implementation (AASB and AUASB) Act 2008.