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The purpose of this paper is to approach, both theoretically and empirically, public sector reporting at European Union (EU) level. It contributes to the accounting harmonisation literature by revealing the actual status of governmental reporting at the national level.

The paper carried out an exploratory data analysis of the harmonisation of statistical, budgetary and financial reporting at the EU level. A mapping visualisation offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of connections between these reporting systems.

The results reveal the complexity of governments’ reporting systems homogeneity, although all stakeholders recognise the struggle for the principles of performance and transparency in the public sector. Thus, these are following the EU Commission’s study, which concludes that there is significant heterogeneity in the accounting and reporting practices applied transversely throughout all Member States.

The relevance of the study is comprehensive, from the economic environment to the practitioners, from the international regulatory bodies to the national ones, all can assess and quantify the significance of the past, present and future changes, considering their needs. The limitations of the research regard the documentation background because uniformly accessing some information presented by the EU Member States is relatively tricky. Future research might focus on the effects of these changes as they occur.

The study contributes to the scientific literature in the public sector through a comprehensive, well-supported and statistically grounded analysis performed at EU level, able to provide reliable results and to support valuable future recommendations towards harmonised reporting. Moreover, it supports and encourages all national and international efforts for improving the comparability of financial, budgetary and aggregated statistical reports.

This paper aims to investigate whether the key items encompassed in the new reporting trends are addressed in the current reporting set and, also, whether there are certain patterns regarding disclosure practices across a sample of reporting entities.

The research methodology takes into consideration both the financial and non-financial elements from the entities’ activities and embeds them in the analysis, in a more holistic frame offered by integrated reporting. The disclosure level is investigated using the six-tier capital model from the International Integrated Reporting Council Framework and the eight major principles from GRI guidelines. Furthermore, the cluster analysis is used to identify the disclosure practices patterns within some European Union local public administrations.

The level of disclosure within the analyzed entities is relatively high. Also, the results of the cluster analysis reveal some disclosure patterns, especially regarding the Anglo-Saxon and Northern local public administrations, the municipalities with the highest degree of disclosure of the sample.

The most significant limitations are represented by the sample of municipalities, the language filter and the fact that only one-year data were considered for analysis.

The study can be useful to any other institutions under the dome of the public sector, willing to enhance public accountability throughout greater transparency. Also, it might help the public managers to outline a long-term development plan about how to create value and to whom, material issues, risks and strategy through the integrated reporting, a cornerstone for future changes. Moreover, it might also be a subject of interest in the research environment, offering new opportunities for further empirical studies, by applying and testing it in other public organizations.

The study provides an original assessment tool useful to improving the reporting process. Also, it can be useful to other public institutions that are willing to enhance public accountability throughout greater transparency.

Considering the worldwide importance granted to this topic, the purpose of this paper is to analyze, through a detailed pyramidal analysis, the intention of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to respond better to the public sector characteristics.

The research methodology combines content analysis with the comparative and interpretive method, and also some statistical methods such as residual analysis, association coefficients, that come to bring added value to the public sector literature.

The main findings of the research concern the appreciation of consolidation approach in the public sphere under a dual aspect. The first one is theoretical, by presenting the evolution of the concept in literature, and the second one is empirical, by analyzing how IPSAS correlates with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), how the Exposure Draft 49 (ED 49) respondents perceive its content and implications, along with the extent to which the publication of IPSAS 35 took into account the exposure draft stage. In the authors’ opinion, the study manages to capture, theoretically and empirically, the evolution and the stage of consolidation in the public sector. The main results of the study lie in the combination in the empirical sphere of the content analysis with the mathematical and statistical methods, in order to assess the correlation IPSAS/IFRS, the responses to ED 49, but also the influences on the final version of IPSAS 35.

The main limitations of the study are: the diversity of the received responses to ED and the number of comment letters submitted by the respondents.

The study addresses to a broad range of users: theoreticians, practitioners or professional bodies/legislators who will have a basis for analyzing what the acceptance and inclusion of IPSAS 35 in the national accounting rules would mean.

The paper offers the possibility to understand the evolution of the concept of public sector consolidation.

The first originality aspect is revealed by the theoretical documentation and the second one lies in the combination of the empirical sphere of the content analysis with the mathematical and statistical methods.