The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has formed an International Standards on Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) Consultative Group on which Jamaican chartered accountant Dennis Brown has been invited to serve.

The mandate of the Consultative Group is to formulate a framework for capacity-building in the area of international standards on accounting and reporting. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) in a news release on Friday said this is an opportunity for Jamaica to help steer the formulation and modification of world accounting standards.

Brown is the chairman of the ICAJ’s Accounting Standards Committee, a position which he has held for almost 10 years now. And according to the ICAJ, he was a major force behind Jamaica’s adoption of International Accounting Standards with effect from July 2002.

“A member of the ICAJ Council and a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Brown, as Chairman of the Accounting Standards Committee, was mainly responsible for leading the change to the new international standards,” said the ICAJ.

The ISAR comprises representatives of main stakeholders in corporate reporting, including regulators, preparers and users of reports, as well as leading agencies

dealing with the post-crisis reform aimed at strengthening the international financial regulatory system. Scheduled to first meet in Geneva from April 22 to 23, members will exchange views and draft a capacity-building framework, including a measurement methodology for assessing a country’s progress and priorities in this area.

The Group was formed as a result of a request of UNCTAD’s Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on ISAR. This request arose from ISAR discussions that were held during its 25th and 26th sessions. These sessions focused on the capacity-building needs of developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to enable them to meet international requirements in accounting and reporting. At its 26th session in 2009, ISAR requested the creation of a Consultative Group to formulate a capacity-building framework for consideration by the 27th session of ISAR, scheduled to take place in Geneva October 12 to 15.

UNCTAD is the focal point within the UN for corporate accounting and reporting issues. It services ISAR, which was created in 1982 by the Economic and Social Council of the UN. ISAR’s objective has been to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their efforts geared towards harmonisation of their national reporting standards and codes with international requirements. ISAR’s annual sessions provide an open forum for up to 300 participants from all over the world. These participants represent regulators, standards-setters, professional bodies, academics and other private and public sector agencies. During ISAR’s annual sessions, experts discuss the most urgent issues in accounting and reporting, and the best practices for addressing them to gain financial stability, investment facilitation and economic growth.