Public Sector Accounting (PSA)

The Benchmarking Guide for Integrating Public Sector Accounting and Government Finance Statistics aims to inform practitioners and public sector accounting reforms by highlighting the similarities and differences between International Public Sector Accounting Standards and Government Finance Statistics reporting guidelines such as the Government Finance Statistics Manual of the International Monetary Fund (GFSM 2014) and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

A high-level guide on the benefits of accruals based Public Sector Accounting developed under the PULSAR program. The guide serves as an instrument to support clients in their outreach and dialogue to raise awareness of the advantages of accrual accounting adoption.

The Core Competency Framework presented in this document has been prepared to support Governments in implementing and sustaining reforms toward the adoption of accrual based accounting by defining the necessary competencies required by finance professionals to carry out such reforms. In doing so, the Framework provides guidance to the fundamental questions of “Who to train?”, “What to train?” and “To what extent to train?” when embarking on accrual based accounting reforms.

This good practice paper is a product of knowledge sharing and collaboration among the FinCoP members with support from international experts. It is intended to inform and assist PULSAR countries in updating or designing a full scope chart of accounts.

Public Sector Accounting and Reporting Program (PULSAR) aims to support the enhancement of participating countries’ Public Sector Accounting (PSA) and financial reporting frameworks in line with international standards and in accordance with good practices, in order to improve government accountability, transparency, and performance.

The Report "A Comparison of Polish Public Sector GAAP with IPSAS" dated May 2015 was prepared at the request of the Polish Ministry of Finance as a support to prepare future directions of public sector accounting reform in a response to the Eurostat initiative to promote the harmonization of public sector accounting across the EU including the introduction and adoption of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS) based on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).