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The UK government's impending overhaul of audit regulations must include a separate review for the public sector in order to avoid further damage to an already 'fragile' market, industry participants [...]

Despite the current upturn in the U.S. economy, the fiscal outlook for federal, state, and local governments looks grim. For those public servants hoping the end of the protracted period [...]

The pros and cons of implementation of accruals based resource accounting in United Kingdom's public sector are discussed based on a case study.

A study on Australian public sector is presented to highlight the importance of accountability in the sector. The study also indicates how outsourcing of activities of public sector on a commercial-in-confidence basis reduces the accountability in the sector, and eventually leads to inefficiency.

A study analysing the effect of public sector reforms stipulated by World Bank on budgetary control and performance monitoring in Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC), a state-owned enterprise, is presented. The reforms had little impact on budgeting practices in GFDC. Reporting on accounting and performance too did not improve much. Therefore, public interests were not served.

Recent Australian public sector reforms have raised concerns about the disclosure of infrastructure asset information as a basis for improved accountability. This paper examines whether specific infrastructure asset information identified in relevant literature is disclosed in practice. A cross-sectional, content analysis of 1999 annual report disclosures made by 73 Australian public sector entities operating in economic infrastructure industries revealed a low level of, and considerable diversity in, disclosures, particularly relating to the physical condition of infrastructure assets, their maintenance and performance measurement. Such disclosure was found to be driven by government reporting guidelines rather than the use of corporate form. Keywords: Infrastructure assets disclosure; Australian public sector; Corporation

The international effort to align accounting and auditing standards across sectors of the economy and different levels of government is discussed. The uncertainty in the achievement of international harmonization in the future is explained.

The article examines the feasibility of using local government's annual reports as a standard for financial disclosure.

The article examines the need for transparency in financial disclosure, in the context of financial misrepresentation by Australian Department of Defence.

The authors propose that international of accounting standards could be improved with the use of like terminology throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

A research paradigm was developed to examine how managers handle auditing data.

A study of public sector reporting in Queensland, Australia, indicated several categories of data missing or late. This research leads to a model for further investigation.

An attempt to improve public sector internal auditing in Israel failed due to a top-down approach, weak implementation, and ineffectual legislation.

The authors research the reasons that Australian public sector accounting is inappropriately subject to the same rules as for private sector accounting, and they determine that institutionalism is at the bottom of the problem.

Cameral accounting has a long history in Norway, Germany, and Denmark. The role of cameral accounting in the public sector is given, as are its methods of use.

A new emphasis on managerial accounting in the public sector has led to accountants questioning its relevance, as well as to reinforcing older accounting practices.

Accounting in the public sector is analyzed. A case study of Ghana's Volta River Authority is provided.

Issues related to the function of accounting systems as they relate to the economic development of developing countries are examined, focusing on the need to consider both the socio-political context of the countries as well as the technical matters of accounting. Topics include a case study of the Volta River Authority in Ghana.

An analysis of constituent participation in the development of public sector accounting standards in Australia is provided.

After its initial success in the private sector, activity-based costing (ABC) has been embraced by the public sector as an analytical tool that can be used to improve the efficiency of government operations, especially in the area of the privatization of operations. Despite claims that ABC can greatly enhance the evaluation of how to most efficiently deliver services, there are significant obstacles that must be overcome before ABC an be effectively implemented. In order to underscore the challenges facing successful ABC execution in the public sector, the use of activity-based cost accounting by the City of Indianapolis for its privatization initiatives is discussed. Generally ABC is not up to challenge of providing local governments with the tool necessary to comprehensively evaluate direct services and determine which are candidates for contracting out or privatization.

A number of reforms form the basis of the accrual accounting system in Australia's public sector. These reforms include accrual management systems, accrual budgeting, accrual financial reporting, and whole of government reporting. More reforms continue to be developed, but there also remain many issues that still need to be resolved.

The utility of applying accrual accounting to the non-commercial core of government depends on the reason for its use. It appears that the application of accrual accounting is not generally not useful in a microeconomic sense. However, use of this accounting methods may be valuable to determine the implications of fiscal policy on intergenerational equity.

The current turbulence in the federal government environment is opening up new challenges and opportunities for the public sector audit community. This new environment is expected to create a more streamlined government. Administrative functions will be downsized dramatically. These include the audit community, which is likely to experience shrinking audit resources and a greater sense of urgency to accomplish more work with less resources. In such an environment, government auditors will be compelled to review how they perform their work. This will open up new and exciting opportunities for them to explore other paradigms of doing business and to muster enough courage to make the paradigm shift demanded by the new environment.

Accounting principles that were used solely for private corporations are now being applied to the public sector. The reason for this development is that heads of government agencies are being encouraged to be more business oriented since they compete with other private and public entities in offering services. The issues of 'full cost' accounting, 'user to pay' policies and accounting for social costs are discussed.

The New Zealand government has initiated reforms in the management of its public sector accounting. The process began in 1984, when the government realized that its poor economic growth rate could be addressed by applying free enterprise principles to the private and public sectors. Reforms in public sector accounting are in four main areas. These are the accountability between ministers and executives, the differentiation between expected government services and broader goals, management of resources and the differentiation between the government's purchase interest and ownership in interests.

New Zealand is considering measures which will upgrade the requisites of public sector accounting. Some of the laws on public sector acccounting which will be amended are Public Finance Act 1989, Local Government Amendment Act 1989 and Education Act 1989. Innovations to these laws include increased external reporting, modification of reporting regulations and obligatory statements of Contingent Liabilities and Unappropriated Expenditure.

A revolution in government accounting systems that was started in 1995, to replace the traditional cash-based system with a commercial-style resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) system, has proposed to take the next step that is gargantuan of producing 'whole of government accounts' (WGA) from 2006-07 onwards in order to improve the macro-economic framework. Part of the government's plan to improve accounting system includes increasing the professionalism of the senior finance function by recruiting qualified accountants.

The international public sector accounting standards (IPSASs) provide a cost efficient means for countries that do not have standard setting arrangements in place proper financial reporting in the public sector. IPSASs provide the countries with a benchmark that can be used to achieve greater harmonization internationally.

Suggestions are presented for solving the implementation problems associated with Australian Accounting Standard 27 Financial Reporting by Local Government.