IPSAS: Current Practices Countries and Future Research

• In Event: Breakfast/Research Roundtable Session

Abstract

Abstract
Public sector accounting is undergoing a rapid transformation that is affecting economies of both developing and developed countries. In some ways, the governments of developing countries are benefiting from the learning curves of some European and Western governments that have had lead the way in adoption of accrual accounting. The underlying driver for accounting reform in the public sector for developing countries seems to be the realization that government spending needs to be more calculated/wiser. IPSAS has been used by such countries as a way to guide their reforms and achieve common goals of standardized information promoting accountability and transparency. Institutional theory, mimicry and New Public Management are some of the theories literature uses to explain the aspirations of governmental accounting reform. However, IPSAS for some is viewed as a foreign infringement and therefore in order to maintain national sovereignty some countries have chosen to keep their own government accounting standards, making slight modifications so as to have at least some commonalities. For others, IPSAS adoption has been a long drawn-out process that has never been fully achieved and may remain that way due to political stagnation.

Authors

• Mustafa Elkasih Abdulkarim, University of Qatar

• Mustafa Elkasih Abdulkarim, University of Qatar