Practice-Relevant Accrual Accounting for the Public Sector

This book addresses the necessary developments and adjustments that can be regarded as a promising starting point for making accrual accounting more practice-relevant for the public sector entities. Specifically, the main focus is on reshaping the application of accrual accounting principles and assumptions to fit the context of public sector entities; developing a practice-relevant holistic accounting approach for governmental capital assets, which has been based on developing and reshaping the assets recognition criteria; scope of general purpose financial reporting from an accountability perspective; suggesting a sustainable accounting approach for reporting on the long-term fiscal sustainability; developing a dynamic model for making public sector accrual accounting a more user practice relevant; and finally, developing a theory of accounting information usefulness, which explains how cognitive aspects do influence the use/non-use of accounting information by the politicians. Fundamentally, this book has tackled these necessary developments and adjustments from both the producer’s and the user’s perspectives.

Hassan Ouda is Professor of Accounting at Faculty of Management Technology, German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt. His research interests include public sector accounting and budgeting reform, particularly in relation to implementation of accrual accounting and budgeting, performance-based budgeting, and performance audit in public sector.