Harmonização normas contabilisticas

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NATIONAL ACCOUNTING RULES IN A GLOBALISED WORLD'

PRO: AN ALTERNATIVETO A SINGLE SET OF ACCOUNTING STANDARDS FOR THE WORLD
ROBERTE. LITAN*
The corporate accounting scandals in the United States during 2002 have strengthened calls trom around the world for having a single set of accounting sta;ldards. CUrrent Generally Accepted Accounting PrincipIes (GAAP) in the United States, it is claimed, have been a major part of the probIem. The reason: because the principIes are so detaiIed, they virtually invite dever accountants and attorneys to skirt the intent of the mIes by carefully circumventing their precise contours. One wideIy discussed solution is for the United States to follow the manyother countries that have embraced or, like the European Union are about to adopt, InternationaI Accounting Standards, which are written in broad principIes instead. There is a case for having a single set of accounting standards - as shortlyargued - but it does not and shouId not rest on the recent accounting failures in the Uí.1ited States. In 'virtually all of the highly publicized cases - Enron, WorIdcom, Xerox, and

Moreover, there are drawbacks to the broad principles-based approach embodied in IAS, which leave ample discretion to management and auditors on how to report a variety of transactions. Can one be easily assured that the same managements that were so willing to skirt the detailed mIes of US. GAAP suddenly would follow conservative accounting if they were given the freedom or license to do so? Skepticism about the answer is a major reason why the US. standards have been driven by regulators and litigation toward detailed mIes.
A far better argument for a single set of reporting standards worIdwide is to ensure that investors, wherever they may reside, can easily understand and compare the financial accounts of companies headquartered in different countries. This has become an increasingly important objective as investors expand their