Peter Garnett, a member of the International Accounting Standards Board and chairman of the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee.
Gulf News: You say that the UAE should adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Is it superior to the US's GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice)?
Garnett: I think it is a better standard not because it is technically superior or gives a better answer than any other GAAP, but because there are so many countries around the world that have agreed to use it. That means that it is more transportable and more comparable.
People say IFRS is high-quality. But high-quality means that the people who have to use it understand its requirements. We should be focusing on the reporting of the results of business transactions. Are they comparable so anybody reading them can properly understand what companies are doing? You could write very detailed technical rules [to] cover every possible transaction, but [not] many people will have the capacity to understand 100,000 pages of rules.
See full Interview.
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