Public sector financial reforms: which convergence between European member states?

Citation

(2010), "Public sector financial reforms: which convergence between European member states?", International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, Vol. 18 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijaim.2010.36618aad.017

Public sector financial reforms: which convergence between European member states?

Article Type: AMIS statement and abstracts From: International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, Volume 18, Issue 1

Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Vol. 8 No. 4, 2009

Abstract

Recently, many countries have undertaken government accounting and financial reporting reforms, at central and local level, in order to meet transparency, accountability and comparison needs. In the meantime, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board issued the first set of accounting standards specifically dedicated to public sector; but their adoption is not compulsory, so not all countries referred to them in reforming their government financial reporting. Given that a standardised government accounting and financial reporting model does not exist, this study compares three European countries (France, Italy, and the UK) and one supranational institution (European Union) in order to highlight similarities and differences between accounting reforms recently carried out at central level. The aim of the paper is to verify if a set of common elements can be identified, as to consider them a first step towards European central government financial reporting harmonization.

Keywords Public sector accounting, Accrual accounting, Central government financial reporting, Europe

Michaela Soverchia

University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

Corresponding author

Michaela Soverchia can be contacted at: soverchia@unimc.it