GASB Mission
GASB Mission
GASB is an organization whose main purpose is to improve and create accounting reporting standards or generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These standards make it easier for users to understand and use the financial records of both state and local governments. The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is funded and monitored by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF). The GASB was created in 1984 to succeed the National Council on Governmental Accounting (NCGA) by agreement. Although the GASB does not have the power to enforce compliance with the standards it promulgates, the authority for its standards is recognized under the Code of Professional Conduct of the AICPA. When auditors review a government’s annual financial report, they are checking that it conforms to the GASB’s standards. Also, legislation in many states requires compliance with GASB standards, and governments usually are expected to prepare financial statements in accordance with those standards when they issue bonds or notes or otherwise borrow from public credit markets.
The GASB is composed of a full-time chair and six part-time members drawn from various parts of the GASB’s constituency—state and local government finance officers and auditors, the accounting profession, academia, and persons who use financial statement information. The
Board members draw from their backgrounds; however, they do not serve as a representative of a particular consistency.
The mission of the GASB is to establish and improve standards of state and local governmental accounting and financial reporting that will:
• Result in useful information for users of financial reports; and
• Guide and educate the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of those financial reports.
• These standards are essential to the efficient and effective functioning of our democratic system of government:
• They improve governments’ ability to demonstrate their stewardship to the public; and
GASB is an organization whose main purpose is to improve and create accounting reporting standards or generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These standards make it easier for users to understand and use the financial records of both state and local governments. The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is funded and monitored by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF). The GASB was created in 1984 to succeed the National Council on Governmental Accounting (NCGA) by agreement. Although the GASB does not have the power to enforce compliance with the standards it promulgates, the authority for its standards is recognized under the Code of Professional Conduct of the AICPA. When auditors review a government’s annual financial report, they are checking that it conforms to the GASB’s standards. Also, legislation in many states requires compliance with GASB standards, and governments usually are expected to prepare financial statements in accordance with those standards when they issue bonds or notes or otherwise borrow from public credit markets.
The GASB is composed of a full-time chair and six part-time members drawn from various parts of the GASB’s constituency—state and local government finance officers and auditors, the accounting profession, academia, and persons who use financial statement information. The
Board members draw from their backgrounds; however, they do not serve as a representative of a particular consistency.
The mission of the GASB is to establish and improve standards of state and local governmental accounting and financial reporting that will:
• Result in useful information for users of financial reports; and
• Guide and educate the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of those financial reports.
• These standards are essential to the efficient and effective functioning of our democratic system of government:
• They improve governments’ ability to demonstrate their stewardship to the public; and