(Business in Cameroon) - The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has just launched a call for expression of interest to choose consulting firms which should help it upgrade its accounting system to the IFRS standards.

According to the bank, by upgrading its system to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), it will have a unique, coherent, reliable and a similar accounting system. Moreover, in the call for expression of interest, it is revealed that during an initial assessment, the applicable IFRS standards were identified and the gaps between the current system and those standards had been revealed.  

In May 2018, for the twelve months, the selected consulting firms will start helping BEAC present the bank’s financial statements validated on December 31, 2017, according to the IFRS standards and prepare the publishable financial statements of the 2018 fiscal year.  Those firms will also review BEAC’s transactions with other institutions (national treasuries, lending institutions, IMF…) and determine the appropriate system.

The call for expression also informs that the interested firms must have been operating for at least 10 years as an accounting and consulting firm specialized in the assistance to companies like BEAC wishing to upgrade to IFRS standards. Knowledge of French and of CEMAC’s institutional framework would be an asset.

All expressions of interest (submitted in French) are to be sent to the Central Bank’s headquarters in Yaoundé or by mail on April 30, 2018, at the latest.

S.A