Heritage Accounting

Abstract

The ongoing heritage project of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) aims to develop additional guidance on the financial reporting for heritage assets to satisfy the informational needs of the general-purpose financial report users, purposively, for proper accounting and sound decision-making. Baguio City, belongs to the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) of the Philippines, governed by its respective local government unit, is endowed historically, culturally and naturally with heritage assets. Aimed to analyze how the city presented such assets in its financial statements, this study explores deeper on its 10-year financial statements, including the notes containing the relevant disclosures. The financially unclassified heritages assets are studied further vis-à-vis the developing IPSAS in the pursuit of their inclusion in the books, in the face of the financial statements or through adequate disclosures. Issues on definition, recognition and measurement are raised in the course of the consultation of IPSASB with the public. With the presence of existing Philippine government accounting standards, the international disputes appear similar, like the inclusion of heritage assets as part of Property, Plant and Equipment ruled by IPSAS 17. In anticipation for final approval of the IPSAS in 2021 and subsequent adoption in the Philippines, this paper expects to uncover Baguio City’s capability to capture substantially all its heritage assets in its financial statements to inform and educate better its constituents, thus, strengthening significantly their drive for the preservation of these heritage assets bearing their Cordilleran identity.