American University, Washington: Financial Year Statement - Research Paper Example

In this case I chose the American University Financial statement for the year 2011-April 30 2012. Also a brief definition of the mandates of GASB is included in the essay. According to the Financial Accounting Foundation (1994); The GASB was formed in 1984 as an independent and not-for-profit organization that is mandated with establishing and improving the financial accounting and reporting the standards for state and also local governments. The members are drawn mostly the varied Board’s electorate with some of them including the auditors especially of the government financial statements, the users of the government financial statements, the members of the academic community among others.

The members are seven in number. Under the staff pension plans in the AU the requirement is that eligible employees of the University can partake in two sections of the pension and retirement plans with one being administered by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund while the other fund being administered by Fidelity Investments. This further more is explained by the AU that under the two plans the contributions is vested and transferable by the staff to other employer plans.

This means that even though the staff of AU contributes to the two options of retirement plans they are not restricted to the two instead they can get a third one should they wish to do so and still they will have the power to execute decisions.  In the AU the participating employees in the scheme contribute from a minimum of 1% to a limit of 5% of their basic salary. With this amount, the University will contribute an amount twice the employee’s contribution to the scheme.  For example in the last fiscal year that ended April 2012 according to AU they contributed approximately 14.

4 million dollars and this means that the staff contribution was around 7.2 million dollars approximately. According to the Statement 68 of the Accounting and Financial Reporting of Pensions, whereby it is required that cost-sharing employers to record a liability and expense equal to their proportionate share of the collective net pension liability and expense for the cost-sharing plan.  This statement is in order to improve the comparability and consistency on how the government will calculate the pension and liabilities and expenses.

(Gross, McCarthy & Shelmon, 2010) One of the conditions that will affect the university will be the litigations that have been made on the University, as much as the university says on their financial statement that it will not affect the company, in contrast it will affect the university in terms of grants that might be used by the university. Although this effect will not have a hugely or have a great impact on the University’s financial position or even the cash flows and net assets. It is expected the resolution of all the matters will not be a major blow to the University as it mainly looks at the normal conduct of its operations.

In other case, the University has made great strides with the constructions of plant facilities in the University, this will greatly help in the university growth and this has further been enhanced by the numerous grants and commitments the university has received from various investment fund managers. These entire amount invested will be subjected to audit by the government agencies to enhance transparency. The expansion program will be a great step on the University ambition to move ahead and therefore have