OREANDA-NEWS. October 14, 2014. Two workshops on improving audit quality by transposing relevant EU requirements, organized by the World Bank, opened in Tbilisi today. David Onoprishvili, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, welcomed individuals involved in accounting and auditing reform from the Eastern Partnership countries attending the event.

The World Bank Centre for Financial Reporting Reform (CFRR), as part of its “Strengthening Auditing and Reporting in the Countries of the Eastern Partnership” (STAREP) program, facilitates accounting and auditing communities of practice (CoP). These bring together groups of practitioners from participating countries to share knowledge, experiences and ideas.

Two regional CoP workshops are taking place in Tbilisi this week: One group focuses on accounting and auditing standards and is this week considering new EU requirements targeted to improve audit quality and transparency. The other group focuses on professional education and is initiating development of a timetable to overhaul accounting education across the STAREP countries.

“We are pleased to welcome these two important events under the regional STAREP program in Georgia,” said David Onoprishvili, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament of Georgia. “In recent years, Georgia has made significant reform efforts to raise the level of corporate and financial accountability and address the transparency of our businesses. With recent signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union, Georgia is dedicated to continue reforming its financial reporting framework in order to align our practices with the EU requirements. We believe that opportunities to participate in the various communities of practice organized by the World Bank Centre for Financial Reporting Reform are very useful for our standards setters and regulators, and provide our specialists and stakeholders with significant support in promoting financial reporting reform in Georgia. We look forward to sharing this experience with our colleagues from other countries under the STAREP program”.

“Effective financial reporting systems are important to underpin economic development.  They help create conditions in which smaller enterprises can access credit to develop and grow, offering jobs and social benefits,” said Henri Fortin, Head of the World Bank CFRR. “It is encouraging to see STAREP countries working together to shape and modernize their accounting environments and to revise their accounting education to help the next generation achieve their potential and operate successfully in an increasingly global marketplace.”