Catalog of reports, decisions and opinions, testimonies and speeches.

Transparent and prudent local financial management has come to be recognized as critical to the integrity of local public sector and to gaining and retaining trust of local residents. Such integrity and trust is sometimes lacking in some local governments in developing countries, especially in the Africa region. This volume attempts to provide practical guidance to local governments interested in establishing sound financial management systems. Leading international experts have contributed to all relevant aspects of local public financial management - cash management, internal controls, accounts, audits, and debt management.

This book addresses the necessary developments and adjustments that can be regarded as a promising starting point for making accrual accounting a more practice-relevant for the public sector entities. Specifically, the main focus is on Reshaping the application of accrual accounting principles and assumptions to fit the context of public sector entities; Developing a practice-relevant holistic accounting approach for governmental capital assets, which has been based on developing and reshaping the assets recognition criteria; Scope of general purpose financial reporting from an accountability perspective; Suggesting a sustainable accounting approach for reporting on the long-term fiscal sustainability; Developing a dynamic model for making public sector accrual accounting a more user practice relevant; and finally, Developing a theory of accounting information usefulness, which explains how cognitive aspects do influence the use/non-use of accounting information by the politicians. Fundamentally, the book has tackled these necessary developments and adjustments from both the producer’s and the user’s perspectives.