On December 4th, 2003, in Banja Luka, dr. Novak Kondic, Secretary general of the Association of Accountants and Auditors of the Republic Srpska (AAARS), and mr. Pero Skobic, Secretary general of the Serbian Association of Accountants (SAAA) and Auditors, signed an official agreement on mutual recognition of professional accountancy qualifications .

Consistent with the Professional Qualifications Guidelines of the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and with the International Accounting Standards of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), governing bodies of the AAARS and SAAA approved such an agreement, considering that education programs and qualifications meet all of the prescriptive requirements.


The Prime Minister of the Republic Srpska, Mr. Dragan Mikerevic, on the behalf of the Republic of Srpska Government, was present at the signing of the Agreement and express official support, suggesting that in this way not only the accountancy profession is being enhanced but also it supports, to the large extent, the economic development of the whole region and provides a distinct guarantee of high-quality accounting and auditing services, and of financial reporting comparability and transparency.

In this way, the professional associations of accountants of Serbia and the Republic Srpska successfully met the decisions of the SEEPAD Assembly and Council. According to decisions of SEEPAD Assembly and Council and upon succesful completion of the activities of the SEEPAD Education, Ethics and Quality Control Committee, final objective is mutual recognition of professional qualifications between all SEEPAD member bodies. By mutual compliance and recognition of professional qualifications, a basis for creation of a regional accounting qualification will be formed, which will enable a valid practice to professional accountants in each country of the region.

Decisions of SEEPAD Assembly and Council are also in accordance with the IFAC Compliance Program. Integral part of IFAC Program is reconciliation of the educational and certification program for all IFAC member bodies, with overall objective of providing harmonized practice standards and high-quality services of professional accountants world wide.

Since IFAC significantly relies on regional organizations to provide support and assistance in implementation of the Compliance Program, SEEPAD, as the regional Southeastern European partnership on accountancy development, will intensify its activitieis on harmonization of professional education and qualificatio programs as well as overall accountancy profession in region, in order to enable an undisturbed high-quality work of professional accountants in region and futher harmonization with most developed practices in European Union, and worldwide.