The sorry state of much of North America’s infrastructure is well known through the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Report Card. Other parts of the world are also concerned about the state of their infrastructure. A number of years ago the US Federal Government passed legislation under the acronym GASB which was designed to encourage local government to manage and maintain their capital assets.
I blogged earlier about a Canadian bill PSAB 3150 that requires public agencies to report in their annual financial statements the location, condition, and depreciated value of their assets. Michael Schlosser has published a very relevant article, Streamlining Infrastructure Asset Management, about the impact PSAB 3150 is having on local governments, and in particular on the challenge this presents to local government in preparing the required reports. The challenges are the typical ones that agencies responsible for network infrastructure face (here, here, here and here), but the good news is that these challenges can be surmounted and Mike talks about a local government, the City of Lloydminster, which straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta, that has managed to overcome the hurdles to become PSAB 3150 compliant.
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