This technical note and manual (TNM) explains what accrual accounting means for the public sector and discusses current trends in moving from cash to accrual accounting. It outlines factors governments should consider in preparing for the move and sequencing of the transition. The note recognizes that governments considering accounting reforms will have different starting points across the public sector, different objectives, and varying coverage of the existing financial statements, it therefore recommends that governments consider each of these, and the materiality of stocks, flows and entities outside of government accounts when planning reforms and design the sequencing and stages involved accordingly. Building on international experiences, the note proposes four possible phases for progressively increasing the financial operations reported in the balance sheet and operating statement, with the ultimate aim of including all institutional units under the effective control of government in fiscal reports.

Over the life of the Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) network, there has been unprecedented global interest in public sector accounting reforms. Hence the importance given to taking stock of reforms implementation. This book gathers a set of papers, many of them in comparative international perspective, on several topics relating to Public Sector Accounting, both at Central and Local Government levels. Authors from several countries around the world present and discuss here issues such as: financial reporting, information users and accountability; performance measurement and management accounting; national and international standards; reform processes; budgeting, auditing and controlling systems; efficiency and service charters; contingent liabilities; and consolidated accounts. Several of these are also analysed within the context of developing countries. Subsequently, the book offers a compilation of the most important topics actually being discussed in the Public Sector Accounting field.

The aim of this book is to take stock of the experiences of Spain and Portugal in the adaptation to the IPSAS, showing the advantages, disadvantages and the main challenges for its implementation. In chapter one, the book analyses the IPSAS and the conceptual framework, as well as the claimed benefits and criticisms of IPSAS. Chapter two makes an analysis of the diffusion of the IPSAS in the international framework and the process of harmonization in development in Europe. Chapter three and four analyze the process of adaptation to IPSAS in Portugal and Spain respectively. In the chapter five, there is a comparative analysis between Spain and Portugal, and the last chapter present the main conclusions. This book can help to understand the level of implementation of the reforms and how governments are applying the IPSAS.

Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. However, there are realistic solutions emerging from institutional reforms in some developing countries. Lessons from these experiences suggest that reform limits, although challenging to adopt, can be overcome by focusing change on problem solving through an incremental process that involves multiple agents.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed an influx of innovations and reforms in public financial management. The current wave of reforms is markedly different from those in the past, owing to the sheer number of innovations, their widespread adoption, and the sense that they add up to a fundamental change in the way governments manage public money. This book takes stock of the most important innovations that have emerged over the past two decades, including fiscal responsibility legislation, fiscal rules, medium-term budget frameworks, fiscal councils, fiscal risk management techniques, performance budgeting, and accrual reporting and accounting. Not merely a handbook or manual describing practices in the field, the volume instead poses critical questions about innovations; the issues and challenges that have appeared along the way, including those associated with the global economic crisis; and how the ground can be prepared for the next generation of public financial management reforms. Watch Video of Book Launch

Key Principles of Public Sector Reforms contains case studies from Cameroon, Ghana, Grenada, India, Kenya, Rwanda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago on the policy reforms, strategies and methodologies that support national priorities and greater policy coherence for sustained development and growth.

The book provides an overview of the governmental accounting status quo in Europe by analysing the public sector accounting, budgeting and auditing systems in fourteen European countries. IT sheds light on the challenges faced by European countries as they move towards adoption of the European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS).