Responding to GASB Requests for Public Comment Essay

Responding to GASB Requests for Public Comment - Essay Example Therefore, it is greatly relevant to release the exposure drafts for public commentary before they get implemented by the government. The major benefit of exposure drafts is primarily to improve financial reporting by state of local government pension plans. This would help improve the effectiveness of the obtainable principles of accounting and fiscal reporting for drafted pensions. When the public are aware of these drafts, it opens a wide room for recommendations for them, thus providing the concerned bodies such as the local government and the respective institutions to make appropriate decisions regarding all the citizens’ opinions (GASB, 2011). This further encourages transparency between the government and the citizens of a nation and its citizens. The benefits of exposure drafts exist in the inter-period equity and the supporting statements of accountability which is highly essential to the government as it facilitates easy cooperation for the implementation of the rel evant policies concerning employees for a particular country (GASB, 2011). This would ease the intensity with which different employees are to be paid considering various logistics involved in the decisions made. Through these measures, new and effective accounting and financial reporting standards would emerge. ... Critical elements of the exposure draft The critical elements of the exposure draft are the key parts of the draft that needs to be looked at by the citizens, especially when they are giving their views and observations. This will help the financial and accounting board in implementing the new standards effectively. First, a defined benefit pension plan should present a statement of a plan net position which includes various information about plan assets, liabilities, deferred outflows and inflows of resources and the net position are considered as per end of the reporting duration (GASB, 2011). The benefit pension plan should also contain a statement of changes in a plan net position that incorporates information such as additions to, deductions from and the net increase or decrease in plan position of the net during that period. The defined pension plan schedule should also be able to show the measurement of the net pension liability of employees. The net pension liability of the e mployee is determined as the total pension liability of the employer measured in conformity to total pension liability, timing and frequency of the measurement, assumptions on selection, project of benefit payments and ac considerate discount rate. When all these aspects are collectively considered then it becomes effective to understand and interpret the financial information presented. Consequently there should an element of the effective date and transition which is effective for financial statements for periods commencing next year thus the plan should encompass a single employer pension plan, plan net pension as per the first fiscal year reporting (GASB, 2011). Therefore, it is should be noted by the board that effective dates address the user’s needs considering the information