Interpretation and Application of IPSAS

2 Why Converge Public Sector Accounting Practices?

This chapter considers the trend of global convergence within the arena of public sector accounting. Convergence of accounting practices and systems across borders should establish a largely homogenous basis for underlying assumptions for accounting and financial reporting. IPSAS serves as a mechanism for enabling increased homogeneity between public sector financial reporting in different countries.

The adoption of IPSAS in a variety of different countries and standard-setting bodies has gained increasing attention on the part of nation states and some countries have initiated processes for adopting or converging with IPSAS (see for example Deloitte, 2013; Jensen and Smith, 2013). At the same time, academics, regulators, and policy makers are increasingly devoting attention to recent developments in the global convergence of public sector accounting (Ball, 2014; Brusca et al., 2015; Christiaens et al., 2010; Mason, 2012).

In debates on global, regional, and local convergence of accounting practices, accountability and transparency often stand out as critical components; in particular, during the last decade, where the impact of the global financial crisis on government funds has been seen to be significant, with squeezed budgets having to satisfy ever-increasing demands for public services (Bandy, 2015).

This chapter therefore looks at some of the key definitions of transparency and accountability, as these are two terms that ...