TBAS 1.2 – Revisions to TBAS 1.2 – Information notice

Date sent: April 30, 2012

To: Chief Financial Officers
Copy to: Deputy Chief Financial Officers

From: Tom Scrimger, Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Office of the Comptroller General

This is to inform you that a revised Treasury Board Accounting Standard (TBAS) 1.2 was approved by the President of the Treasury Board on April 23, 2012. The revised TBAS 1.2 updates and replaces the Standard issued in 2010 and applies for 2011-12 departmental financial statements.  This update was required following observations made by the Office of the Auditor General as a result of its audits of 2010-11 departmental financial statements.

We would like to draw your attention in particular to the changes made to the Standard with regards to presentation of a departmental net debt, the new Statement of Change in Departmental Net Debt and the integration of the elements formally presented in the Statement of Equity with the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position.  We would also like to highlight that the presentation of the departmental net debt requires entities to be able to segregate financial assets that are respendable from those that are non-respendable if these amounts are material to the entity.  Given the short timeframe to implement the TBAS 1.2, we encourage departments and agencies to consider the level of materiality in order to determine the level of effort required to determine those amounts. For example, management’s best estimate may be acceptable in the circumstances.

Departmental and Agency Financial Statements Reporting Requirements for the Year Ended March 31, 2012

Departments and agencies are required to submit:

• An unsigned version of the financial statements (i.e. near final draft) in the language of their choice to the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) for review, no later than June 29, 2012.  Our observations on the financial statements will be provided to departments and agencies within five weeks of receipt.
• A final signed version of the financial statements to the OCG no later than August 31, 2012.  This date allows departments and agencies to process post-closing entries, if necessary, as a result of errors found during the Public Accounts audit.  Only one version (French or English) of the departmental financial statements is to be forwarded to the OCG.

Entities that are currently being audited on a standalone basis are not required to send their draft to the OCG; only a final signed version should be sent, along with the auditor’s report, once available.

Electronic copies of both the June 29, 2012 and August 31, 2012 of your departmental financial statements are to be forwarded by e-mail.

To assist with the preparation of the financial statements, information sessions will be held by the OCG.  These sessions are geared towards financial officers who are directly involved in the preparation of departmental financial statements to help to familiarize themselves with the revised TBAS 1.2. Departments and agencies can send up to two representatives to any one of the following sessions:

• May 4 - 1:30-3:00 pm - English
• May 9 - 1:30-3:00 pm - French
• May 10 - 9:00-10:30 am - English
• May 11 - 9:00-10:30 am - English
• May 24 - 2:30-4:00 pm - Bilingual

All sessions are to be held in Meeting Room A, Ground floor, 222 Nepean St., Ottawa.

To reserve your spot, please send an email to Ahmad Husain.

If you have any questions on the standard, please do not hesitate to contact either Anne-Marie Dionne at 613-952-1004, or Andrée Pelchat at 613-957-9853.