Authors: Mihail Diakomihalis, Eleni Fragkou

Title: Evaluation Criteria of IAS/IFRS implementation in Greece

Abstract

The adoption of IAS / IFRS by Greek listed companies has been the motivation for the current survey of their evaluation by the people themselves who are called upon to implement them. The aim of the survey is to determine the degree of significance of these criteria. The survey involved professionals who are directly related to the application of IAS / IFRS, namely the Financial Directors / Chief Accountants of the listed companies, the Freelance Accountants / Certified Auditors and the Tax Auditors working at Auditing Center of Large Companies.  The assessment criteria relate to: the qualitative characteristics of the IFRS, the more accurate information they provide, the positive effects of their application, the difficulties of their application and, finally, their effect on the role of the accountant. The methodological tool was the questionnaire, while the methodology used was the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The participants were asked to classify these criteria based on the importance they themselves attribute to each criterion. The results exported have shown that the Certified Auditors and the Tax Auditors have diverging views on the degree of relevance of the criteria, while the Chief Financial Officers have a relative consensus with both groups. The overall conclusion is that the ranking of the criteria depends on the role each group of respondents is asked to play in their implementation.