The AICPA Auditing Standards Board (ASB) on Thursday issued two interpretations that are designed to help governmental pension plans, participating employers, and their auditors as they implement new GASB standards.
Governmental multiple-employer pension plans and their participating employers are facing numerous accounting and auditing issues as a result of GASB pension standards for state and local governments released in 2012. The new ASB interpretations address agent multiple-employer defined benefit pension plans (agent plans); three auditing interpretations previously issued in April were related to governmental plans, in general, and cost-sharing multiple-employer plans.
The new interpretations apply to Statement on Auditing Standards No. 122, Statements on Auditing Standards: Clarification and Recodification, as amended, in the following two sections:
- Section 500, Audit Evidence.
- Section 805, Special Considerations—Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts, or Items of a Financial Statement.
The three interpretations issued in April apply to Section 500, Section 805, and Section 600, Special Considerations—Audits of Group Financial Statements (Including the Work of Component Auditors). All of the recent ASB interpretations are available on the AICPA’s website.
Three white papers issued by the AICPA State and Local Governments Expert Panel (SLGEP) also address issues related to agent and cost-sharing plans as a result of the new GASB pension standards. Links to the white papers and the audit interpretations are available on the new “GASB Matters” resource center on the AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) website.
The GAQC resource center, which is open to the public, provides links to educational resources GASB has made available on this topic and to other related GAQC communications. The resource center also offers information and extensive coverage of various AICPA and other GASB pension-related resources.
— Ken Tysiac ( ktysiac@aicpa.org ) is a JofA editorial director.
