Different perspectives in public sector accounting harmonisation: IFRS, GFS and IPSAS

Abstract

In order to compare financial information across companies, organisations, and public entities, accounting standards and accounting practices have to be harmonised. For this purpose, first, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been developed for the preparation of general purpose financial statements of profit-oriented entities. However, some governments also have based their national public accounting standards on IFRS. Second, the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) provide statistics on financial operations, financial position and liquidity situation, especially of the general government sector, and enable analysis of fiscal statistics. Third, public sector accounting should be harmonised at the global level by adopting the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). This chapter describes these three different perspectives in public sector harmonisation and refers to challenges associated with accounting harmonisation.