Accounting Standards Poor Across The Kingdom: Study

 A recent study to measure compliance with Cambodia’s Law on Accounting and Auditing found few companies are willing to share information about their accounting practices; among those that do, there is a low rate of compliance. 

The study, carried out by the National Accounting Council (NAC), was comprised of in-person interviews with 50 companies and an online survey sent to 3,560 organisations, of which only 363 replied. Less than half of Cambodian companies actually follow required international accounting standards, the study found. 

“I found that, at most, only 43 per cent of companies required to apply accounting standards did so. There was also widespread noncompliance with the requirement to have an independent audit of the financial statements,” said Casey Barnett, of CamEd Business School, who carried out the survey on behalf of the National Accounting Council (NAC). 

Of firms required to have an external audit, just 59 percent said they fulfilled their legal obligation. The report lists low managerial interest as the main reason for noncompliance. Other reasons included scarcity of skilled staff, confusion related to the new regulation and cost of implementation. 

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