Introduction to a Symposium on New Challenges for Public-Sector Accounting: IPSAS, Budgetary Reporting, and National Accounts

Abstract

This special issue of the International Journal of Public\ud Administration gathers a symposium of papers selected\ud from those presented at the “European Group of Public\ud Administration (EGPA)” Permanent Study Group XII Spring\ud Workshop, happened in Lisbon in May 2014.\ud The broad theme of the workshop—“New challenges for\ud public-sector accounting: IPSASs, Budgetary Reporting, and\ud National Accounts”—was chosen to promote the discussion\ud on topics that are currently at the very heart of the worldwide\ud debate concerning public-sector accounting (PSA)\ud reforms, namely: Fiscal Policy and Budgetary Reporting,\ud International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs)\ud and Harmonization in PSA, Governmental Accounting\ud and National Accounts, EPSASs and PSA in Europe,\ud Accountability, and Consolidation

The influences of institutional actors on the adoption of accounting standards for the public sector in Portugal

“…International public accounting standards are an issue that has warranted the attention of the G20 countries (Group of the 20 richest countries). For example, on page 3 of the "Communiqué issued by the G20 Information Center" (G20 Information Centre, 2013) after the meeting held in Moscow in 2013, it states that there is a need to "better assess the risks to the sustainability of public debt, " and also includes "taking into account the specific circumstances of each country, observing the transparency and comparability of public sector reporting and monitoring the impact of financial sector vulnerability on public debt, " increasing the pressure to adopt accounting systems that allow for greater comparability and transparency of the information provided by the different public sector entities (Rossi et al, 2015;Jorge et al, 2016;Bilhim et al, 2022). Thus, international organizations and countries are influencing the adoption of the IPSAS, or at least their use as a basis for more transparent accounting systems that allow for the comparability of the financial information provided by the different public sector entities (Gomes et al, 2015).…”

“…It is true that public sector accounting has been the subject of greater international attention (Aquino et al, 2020;Bilhim et al, 2022;Lapsley & Miller, 2019), involving a variety of public entities (Fahmid et al, 2020). Pressures have also been identified to initiate changes in public sector accounting practices in countries around the world (Grossi & Argento, 2022), particularly with the aim of controlling public spending and deficits (Rossi et al, 2015). In turn, the adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) by national governments has been presented as crucial to improve the transparency and quality of public sector financial reporting (Gómez-Villegas et al, 2020;Jorge et al, 2016), as well as to generate more comparable financial information between different countries and to minimize existing differences in their generally accepted accounting principles (Polzer, 2022;Schmidthuber et al, 2022).…”

Influências de atores institucionais na adoção de normas contábeis para o setor público em Portugal

“…As normas internacionais de contabilidade pública são um tema que tem merecido a atenção dos países do G20 (Grupo dos 20 países mais ricos). Por exemplo, na página 3 do "Comunicado emitido pelo Centro de Informações do G20" (G20 Information Centre, 2013), que se sucedeu à reunião decorrida em Moscovo em 2013, é referido que é necessário "avaliar melhor os riscos para a sustentabilidade da dívida pública", e isso inclui "ter em conta as circunstâncias específicas de cada país, observar a transparência e a comparabilidade dos relatórios do setor público e monitorizar o impacto da vulnerabilidade do setor financeiro na dívida pública", aumentando a pressão para a adoção de sistemas de contabilidade que permitam uma maior comparabilidade e transparência da informação prestada pelas diferentes entidades do setor público (Rossi et al, 2015;Jorge et al, 2016;Bilhim et al, 2022). Assim, organizações internacionais e países influenciam a adoção das IPSAS ou, pelo menos, a sua utilização como ponto de partida para sistemas de contabilidade mais transparentes e que permitam a comparabilidade da informação financeira prestada pelas diferentes entidades do setor público (Gomes et al, 2015).…”

“…É verdade que a contabilidade para o setor público tem sido objeto de maior atenção internacional (Aquino et al, 2020;Bilhim et al, 2022;Lapsley & Miller, 2019), envolvendo a diversidade de entidades públicas (Fahmid et al, 2020). Têm também sido identificadas pressões para que se iniciem mudanças nas práticas contábeis dos setores públicos de países de todo o mundo (Grossi & Argento, 2022), nomeadamente com o objetivo de controlar os gastos e os déficits públicos (Rossi et al, 2015). Por sua vez, a adoção das International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) pelos governos nacionais tem sido apresentada como crucial para melhorar a transparência e a qualidade dos relatórios financeiros do setor público (Gómez-Villegas et al, 2020;Jorge et al, 2016), bem como para gerar informação financeira mais comparável entre diferentes países e minimizar as diferenças existentes nos seus princípios contábeis geralmente aceites (Polzer, 2022;Schmidthuber et al, 2022).…”

International Accounting Standards, Budgeting and Controlling in Private and Public Sector

“…Accounting and National Accounts (Rossi et al, 2015) [8]. Adaptations from cash-based accounting to accrual-based accounting are of primary importance with respect to the final deficit or surplus while at the same time, questions have raised regarding the reliability of the reported deficits or surpluses [9].…”