Accounting for Infrastructure Regulation : An Introduction
The Enron crisis offered a dramatic reminder to regulators around the world that reliable accounting standards are essential for markets to work efficiently and fairly. Harvey Pitt, chairman of the regulatory agency responsible for the monitoring o...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Publication |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/9484572/accounting-infrastructure-regulation-introduction http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6426 |
Summary: | The Enron crisis offered a dramatic
reminder to regulators around the world that reliable
accounting standards are essential for markets to work
efficiently and fairly. Harvey Pitt, chairman of the
regulatory agency responsible for the monitoring of
accountants in the United States (the Securities and
Exchange Commission) from 2001 to 2003, argued that the
crisis revealed two problems with accounting that needed to
be addressed by the regulators. The first problem is that
the accountants may have gotten some of the accounting
wrong. The second, and more important, problem is that they
may have gotten a lot of the accounting right. This volume
describes a set of rules with which utilities monopolies
should be able to comply without threat to a fair return on
their business, while at the same time ensuring the
accountability of all players. Regulators in many member
countries of the organization for economic co-operation and
development and in the electricity sector in many developing
countries use these rules. There is no reason why they
should not be of value to regulators of all public service
providers that enjoy strong residual monopoly rights.
Ultimately, this book is about rules for maintaining the
minimum level of accountability needed to achieve fair
treatment of investors, operators, users, and taxpayers
alike and to prevent preferential treatment of the
stakeholder with the highest political leverage at any point
in time. |
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