Kenya wants to pull out of ICC

This week, Kenya’s Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka revealed in Nairobi that about eight countries have so far agreed to support the country in its ill-conceived move to pull out of the Rome agreement under which the International Criminal Court (ICC) was formed.

According to Kenya’s Vice President, Tanzania was among the eight nations which had so far agreed to back Nairobi’s ill-timed bid to pull out of ICC. Since the ICC’s Prosecutor General, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, named six prominent Kenyans as the masterminds of the 2007 post-election violence, Kenya has launched a bid to have its two cases at the International Criminal Court deferred.

Kenya is believed to have secured the support of Djibouti, Uganda, South Africa, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania before the VP left for Libya, Liberia and Nigeria this week, to drum up more support for the ‘pull-out-of-ICC mission’. We as Tanzanians, are appalled by the news that Tanzania, a country well known inside and outside Africa for fighting for justice, peace and reconciliation in the region, is behind the ill-timed move by Kenya. We are aware that what Kenya is doing is not for the best interests of the majority of its 30 million plus population, but just a move to save some prominent individuals, who are members of the tribal alliance Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Kamba (KKK) from the ICC’s hook.

Just a few years ago when Kenya was on the brink of collapse, President Jakaya Kikwete and former President Benjamin Mkapa, helped the country to secure a peace accord that enabled two warring factions to share power through a coalition government. During the historical peace accord witnessed by both President Kikwete and former President Mkapa, it was agreed that those who masterminded the brutal post-election violence should be investigated and prosecuted at the ICC, in order to end impunity in Kenya.

It is utterly ridiculous that four years later, at the culmination of full and thorough investigations and the suspects named, our neighbours have launched a bid to pull out of ICC, claiming that the UN’s court wasn’t fair and fit to prosecute its prominent politicians. The questions everybody should be asking, including Tanzania, are: Why now? Why does Kenya suddenly want to pull out of ICC? Why should we support them in this move?

By supporting that ill-timed bid, Tanzania will not be acting in the best interests of millions of Kenyans, but just to shield some few masterminds of the post-election violence of 2007.
While we highly encourage fair and practical cooperation between the East African countries, what we can’t support is any attempt to ‘rape’ justice as Kenya seeks to do.

Tanzania shouldn’t be part of this move because it’s against the foundations on which this country was established. While we are viewed as very poor, incompetent and cowards by some of our neighbours, the truth is that we are highly respected in Africa because of our contribution to the liberation struggle as well as peace and reconciliation in post -colonial Africa.

Tanzania shares the unflinching commitment to combating immunity and promoting democracy, the rule of law, and good governance on the continent as enunciated in the Constitutive Act of the African Union and therefore shouldn’t be part of the current move by Kenya.
Let Kenya, which has purposely and blindly decided to defy the wishes of millions of Kenyans, bear its burden. We know that millions of Kenyans, our brothers and sisters, are in favour of the ICC’s move, and let us stand with them by rejecting ill-timed agenda like the one being currently marketed by Kalonzo Musyoka.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

Corporate Governance- Uk and USA

The corporate governance systems of public companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) are governed by the Combined Code on Corporate Governance. The principles, rules and requirements set out in the Combined Code are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of information disclosure, thus increasing the transparency of public companies. They are also meant to put into place the means for internal control over financial reports and corporate assets in order to protect shareholder interests.

Unlike the United State's very strict Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the Combined Code’s requirements are not mandatory. However, if the management of a public company refuses to implement the rules or principles of the Code, it must provide a clear argument to investors defending its position. More often than not, the easiest route for a company is to follow best practices as they are set out in the Code, rather than to ignore them.

At the same time, the Combined Code does have quite a bit in common with SOX, in particular, SOX's well-known Clause 404. This clause requires that a company put an internal control system into place. Some guiding principles for this were set out in the Turnbull Report of 1999.

According to this paper, public limited companies in the UK should create an internal control system aimed at counteracting fraud and protecting corporate assets against theft, appropriation and other abuses. In practice this means that a corporation must introduce control procedures for reports and assets. These days, financial reports are compiled in electronic format, and a company’s most important assets include intellectual property, confidential information and client databases. In other words, internal control must be built on information technologies in order to track operations with assets and reports.

International Financial Reporting Standards in Issue as of January 2009

Hello guyz
here are the links for some accounting standards, just press control and click on the link and it will take you straight to the standard you wish to read.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs):

·         IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards
·         IFRS 2 Share-based Payment
·         IFRS 3 Business Combinations
·         IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts
·         IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations
·         IFRS 6 Exploration for and evaluation of Mineral Resources
·         IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures
·         IFRS 8 Operating Segments
International Accounting Standards (IASs):

·         IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements
·         IAS 2 Inventories
·         IAS 7 Statement of Cash Flows
·         IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors
·         IAS 10 Events after the Reporting Period
·         IAS 11 Construction Contracts
·         IAS 12 Income Taxes
·         IAS 14 Segment Reporting (for periods starting before 1 January 2009)
·         IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment
·         IAS 17 Leases
·         IAS 18 Revenue
·         IAS 19 Employee Benefits
·         IAS 20 Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance
·         IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates
·         IAS 23 Borrowing Costs
·         IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures
·         IAS 26 Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plans
·         IAS 27 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements
·         IAS 28 Investments in Associates
·         IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies
·         IAS 31 Interests in Joint Ventures
·         IAS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation
·         IAS 33 Earnings per Share
·         IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting
·         IAS 36 Impairment of Assets
·         IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
·         IAS 38 Intangible Assets
·         IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
·         IAS 40 Investment Property
·         IAS 41 Agriculture



UK Financial Reporting Standards in Issue as of
June 2009

Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs):

·         FRS 1 (Revised 1996) - Cash Flow Statements
·         FRS 2 Accounting for Subsidiary Undertakings
·         FRS 3 Reporting Financial Performance
·         FRS 4 Capital Instruments
·         FRS 5 Reporting the Substance of Transactions
·         FRS 6 Acquisitions and Mergers
·         FRS 7 Fair Values in Acquisition Accounting
·         FRS 8 Related Party Disclosures
·         FRS 9 Associates and Joint Ventures
·         FRS 10 Goodwill and Intangible Assets
·         FRS 11 Impairment of Fixed Assets and Goodwill
·         FRS 12 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
·         FRS 13 Derivatives and other Financial Instruments: Disclosures
·         FRS 14 Earnings per Share
·         FRS 15 Tangible Fixed Assets
·         FRS 16 Current Tax
·         FRS 17 Retirement Benefits
·         FRS 18 Accounting Policies
·         FRS 19 Deferred Tax
·         FRS 20 (IFRS2) Share-based Payment
·         FRS 21 (IAS 10) Events after the Balance Sheet Date
·         FRS 22 (IAS 33) Earnings per share
·         FRS 23 (IAS 21) The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates
·         FRS 24 (IAS 29) Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies
·         FRS 25 (IAS 32) Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation
·         FRS 26 (IAS 39) Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
·         FRS 27 Life Assurance
·         FRS 28 'Corresponding Amounts'
·         FRS 29 (IFRS 7) 'Financial Instruments: Disclosures'
·         FRS 30 Heritage Assets
·         FRSSE (effective January 2005) - Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities


SSAPs:

·         SSAP 4 Accounting for government grants
·         SSAP 5 Accounting for value added tax
·         SSAP 9 Stocks and long-term contracts
·         SSAP 13 Accounting for research and development
·         SSAP 15 Status of SSAP 15
·         SSAP 17 Accounting for post balance sheet events
·         SSAP 19 Accounting for investment properties
·         SSAP 20 Foreign currency translation
·         SSAP 21 Accounting for leases and hire purchase contracts
·         SSAP 24 Accounting for pension costs
·         SSAP 25 Segmental reporting