Additional thoughts on the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in Europe – a commentary

ABSTRACT

The Polzer et al. [2022. Implementation of the international public sector accounting standards in Europe. Variations on a global theme. Accounting Forum, 46(1), 57–82.] paper on the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) in Europe published in 2021/2022 in Accounting Forum concluded that European Member States have deviated substantially from the international standards. The authors use an analytical framework, which is derived from new institutional theory, for the analysis of reasons for diverging responses to structure the reasons for the deviations by Member States they have identified. Based on his personal experience, the commentator aims to add a practitioner’s perspective to this paper. In terms of the adaptation of standards by Member States and the observed diversity in translated accounting standards, an alternative viewpoint is offered, which draws attention to some practical aspects of IPSAS implementation. A further issue that could explain the deviations are possible incompatibilities of Anglo-Saxon and European approaches to accounting standard-setting in the public sector. The commentary also addresses some potential misunderstandings about IPSASs.

KEYWORDS:

• IPSAS
• EPSAS
• harmonisation
• government finance statistics
• comparability
• deviations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The 2020 Index contains data from 165 jurisdictions. Forty-nine jurisdictions reported on an accrual basis in the 2020 published financial statements compared to 39 in 2018.