ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STANDARDS, RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN VISITED THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS

We dnesday, 14 October 2009

On the occasion of the International Day of Standards, RA
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited the National Institute of
Standards. The Prime Minister walked round the labs and got acquainted
with the Institute’s current status and development opportunities.

The head of government congratulated the staff of the Institute on
their professional holiday.

Then the Prime Minister called at the training-publishing center of
the accounting department of Armenia’s bookkeepers and auditors’
Association where he handed in qualification certificates to the
graduates.

In his congratulatory remarks, Tigran Sargsyan said in particular,
"The national institute of standards is marking its professional
holiday. The main mission of the Armenian association of bookkeepers
and auditors is to help introduce international standards countrywide,
and see that our businessmen should adhere to the logic of such
standards. You can help ease the life of our businessmen, households,
manufacturers by providing for our security. Said security has a
physical and economic dimension. We all will feel much better living
in a law-abiding society where economic entities shall state their
financial position fairly and accurately. Economic entities are sure
to win public trust as soon as their financial statements come to
reflect the actual state of affairs enabling consumers to get a fair
image of their position.

Unfortunately, we still face serious problems in the field of
accounting and auditing as the transactions carried out by some
entities are not transparent to the public and households do not
trust in their financial statements which is a strong impediment to
economic development. The strengthening of the Association will help
build up public confidence, largely reduce expenditures and eliminate
most of redundant intermediation.

According to the Prime Minister, there are serious concerns as to
whether the Association is well-organized and can develop without
further financial assistance."

The staff trained by the Association, including the auditors, will
be in greater demand on the labor market as audit companies will
have extra workload starting from 2010: there is a legal requirement
stipulating that large enterprises shall be studied by independent
audit companies, with the findings having to be published afterwards:
"This means that hundreds of large enterprises will need the services
of highly qualified audit companies."

The head of government further noted that we have such audit companies
which endorse financial statements without any checks and conformity to
accounting regulations. The market should be cleared of such companies.

The executives of the Association were told to seriously discuss ways
of preparing qualified staff supposed to assume responsibility for
auditing economic entities starting from the year 2010.