On February 13, 2018, the country declared a national disaster in Cape Town as the city's water supply was predicted to run dry before the end of June.
Yet can even such an apparently limitless source give up, for example, 10,000 zebras in five years to make drums and rugs for tourists and not start to run dry?
The Administration informed the Board that, owing to the tight timetable, it might not be possible to produce complete “dry run” accounts, but that it intended to carry out dry runs on the most material and high risk funds for United Nations and peacekeeping operations.
The United Nations IPSAS Implementation Project Team is not confident that it has the resources to prepare “dry run” financial statements with real accounting data.
Asset-related policies and controls that are currently in place will be reviewed leading to the dry run of the 2012 financial statement preparation process.
Although most entities were planning to develop “dry run” statements prior to implementation, using real accounting data, the Board is concerned that the timetable for doing so will be compact, and any delays could leave inadequate time for review and correction.
While most entities are planning to develop “dry run” statements prior to implementation using real accounting data, the Board is concerned that the timetable for this is now very challenging and any delays could leave inadequate time for review and correction;
The Board notes that UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNICEF, UNRWA and the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund all have plans to prepare dry-run financial statements by September 2012.
Given the limited time available before implementation, the Board is also concerned that it has yet to see clear plans for UNHCR to produce “dry-run” accounts with real accounting data.
Where possible, the Board encourages these entities to produce dry-run statements with as much live accounting data as possible (both in terms of months and coverage across the entire organization).
The time frames to complete biennial accounts, which will form the precursor for the preparation of opening balances, may also affect the time frames to perform a “dry run” exercise.
This strategy provides insurance against potential Umoja deployment slippage and makes it practical to undertake the dry runs of peacekeeping financial statements at the end of December 2013, as required by the Board.