ISSUES IN FINANCIAL REPORTING
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School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation
ACCT3563 ISSUES IN FINANCIAL REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
GROUP ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION DOCUMENT
TERM 3, 2022
Group Research & Critical Analysis Assignment (worth 30%)
Information Document
Assume that you work for a large accounting firm in Sydney. The firm is considering
submitting a commentary letter to the International Sustainability Standards Board
(ISSB) about the sustainability accounting exposure draft ED/IFRS S1 General
Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information. The chief
partner of your firm wants to get an idea of what other submitters have said. Therefore,
the chief partner appoints your group to prepare a report (answering the requirements
of this assignment) and submit it by 11:59pm on Friday 28th October (in week 7) so it
can be considered at the upcoming meeting of the firm's partners shortly after.
Work in your allocated group of 5 students (that was assigned on the course Moodle
site in week 2) to complete this assignment. You will need to know your group number
for this assignment.
Background
Accounting standards adopted in Australia are developed first by the International
Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in London, which is part of the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. The IASB is based in London. In
2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was formed by the IFRS
Foundation. The IFRS Foundation established the ISSB in light of increasing calls for
transparent, reliable and comparable reporting by companies on Environmental, Social
and Governance (ESG) matters.
Shortly thereafter, the ISSB published two exposure drafts setting out proposed
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Sustainability. The two
prototype standards released as exposure drafts are:
1) Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on General Requirements for Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED IFRS S1’); and
2) Exposure Draft IFRS S2 on Climate-related Disclosures (‘ED IFRS S2’).
These proposed standards are intended to provide global baselines for sustainability
reporting and to increase the consistency of reporting on ESG-related matters
internationally.
The aim of accounting standard setters is to develop accounting and reporting
standards, as well as pronouncements and interpretations, which provide useful
information for decision makers.
When IASB standard setters are developing a new accounting standard, due process
of the IFRS foundation entails:
a) the mandatory publication of an exposure draft (ED) standard; and
b) public consultation of the ED for a minimum 120 days. (Late submissions are
accepted, depending on the ED).
The IFRS Board will collate the submissions and deliberate on the comments made to
decide whether to release the final standard, which is revised, if necessary, in light of
the comments received. The number of comment letters received varies across EDs
and more controversial EDs can attract large numbers of comment letters.
As mentioned, in 2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (on behalf of
the IFRS Foundation) issued two exposure drafts:
1) Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on General Requirements for Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED IFRS S1’); and
2) Exposure Draft IFRS S2 on Climate-related Disclosures (‘ED IFRS S2’).
Public comments on these two exposure drafts were called for and the deadline for
submissions was 31 August 2022.
As of 15 September 2022, 735 submissions (comment letters) were received on ED
IFRS S1, and 700 submissions were received on ED IFRS S2. There is a lot of overlap
in submissions on these two EDs and many submitters put their thoughts on the two
EDs in one submission letter.
Please note that the group assignment is only about Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on
General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information
(‘ED IFRS S1’) (available at: https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/project/general-
sustainability-related-disclosures/exposure-draft-ifrs-s1-general-requirements-for-
disclosure-of-sustainability-related-financial-information.pdf). Please ignore ED IFRS
S2.
The information you will need to download to complete the assignment:
1. Focus only on comment letters (submissions) about IFRS S1 General
Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED
IFRS S1’).
As of 15 September 2022, there are 735 submissions, but the IASB is adding
some late submissions, so the total may exceed 735 when you download the
list. Nevertheless, proceed as instructed (in point 3 below) to choose your 50
submissions.
3. Choose a random sample of 50 submissions. Do this by starting at the
submission which corresponds to your group number and then take each 15th
submission thereafter. For example, if you are in group 17, you will start with
the 17th submission and then every 15th submission after that (submission 32,
submission 47, submission 62 etc) until you have 50 submissions in total. For
a small number of groups, if choosing each 15th submission takes you to the
end of the list of submissions, continue choosing submissions by going to the
start of the list.