Official Public launch of the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision Subdivision of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia

The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi hosted the official public launch of the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision Subdivision of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. Representatives of executive and legislative branches of government, as well as international donor organizations, diplomatic missions and professional organizations attended the event.

Topics discussed at the launch included: Main advantages and challenges of the service; Its main functions and results that have been achieved; International collaboration; Information resources of the Service and its importance in developing business and country’s economy.  

In his address, the deputy minister of Finance of Georgia, Chairman of the Board of the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision Subdivision of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, Giorgi Tabuashvili stated that successful implementation of Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision reform means increasing the quality of corporate governance, internal controls and reliable reporting, developing financial market and improving investment environment.

Deputy minister of Finance of Georgia, Giorgi Tabuashvili stated that “Implementing the reform will benefit the firm - with a reliable, transparent reporting; the auditor – who will demonstrate highly professional performance; the business - better informed about company’s financial standing, capable of planning its future prospects better, the investor - who will invest in the country with more confidence and lastly, reform results will be tangible for our society”.

“Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision reform is a part of strategy of the government. About a year ago we brought the law into force and established the Supervision Service. The reform is not only oriented to general audit service, but it also promotes development of various fields of the economy” – the Deputy Minister of Finance, Nikoloz Gagua said. According to him, “Without the reform it is impossible to develop a capital market.  Moreover, the reform will promote increased quality of transparency in business sector and minimize the risks, which is a very important factor for developing the economy”. 

“We appreciate the important steps that Georgian government and the Ministry of Finance made in terms of establishing the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Audit Supervision. This is a clear indication of progress made by Georgia in implementing recommendations provided by the World Bank in 2015 financial statements and audit ROSC report. We expect this reform and new framework for reporting to bring real benefit to Georgia, as high quality financial information is inseparable from good investment climate and precedes economic growth, transparency and trust towards economy of the country” - said Jarett Decker, the head of the world bank.

The Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision Subdivision of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia has been functioning since September 2016. The Head of the Service Yuri Dolidze spoke in-depth about the reform, as well as the work (activities) and future plans of the relevant supervision service. According to him, the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision by using supervision systems based on international standards, ensures supervise of auditors and audit firms and professional organization activities, to  adopt compulsory international standards of audit and reporting and other norms in Georgian language and to ensure their accessibility in Georgian language, to set standards for professional education, to recognize and monitor education programs and exam procedures, as well as to create reliable information resource containing entities financial and management data  (public electronic portal for reporting). 

For your information, the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision Subdivision of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia was created in compliance with the Georgian “Law on Accounting, Reporting and Audit” which sets standards and requirements in Georgia for accounting, auditing, reporting and submission, ensuring quality control – aiming to meet the EU requirements for regulating accounting and audit legal acts.

The objective of the law is to regulate the financial accounting-reporting field at the state level and to strengthen monitoring on audit profession.

Please refer to linked presentations: Georgian version (Link 1, Link 2) and English version (Link 1, Link 2)