Public management systems, accounting education, and compliance with international public sector accounting standards in sub-Saharan Africa

• Pages: 141-164
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-12-2018-0274
• Published date: 06 August 2019
• Date: 06 August 2019
• Author: Yosra Mnif Sellami,Yosra Gafsi
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management

Public management systems,

accounting education, and

compliance with international

public sector accounting

standards in sub-Saharan Africa

Yosra Mnif Sellami

Department of Accounting, Taxation, and Law,

Higher Institute of Business Administration of Sfax,

University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia, and

Yosra Gafsi

Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax,

University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the transparency and completeness of government

financial reporting in sub-Saharan African countries by assessing the extent of compliance with IPSAS

disclosures and to investigate the impact of the strength of public management systems (SPMS) and

accounting education on this level.

Design/methodology/approach –This research develops a self-constructed disclosure index from content

analysis and applies panel regressions for a sample of 60 sub-Saharan African government entities during the

period 2014–2017.

Findings –The study results indicate that IPSAS disclosure levels significantly vary across sub-Saharan

African governments. They reveal a positive effect of the SPMS and accounting education on the extent of

compliance with IPSAS in this region.

Practical implications –The study findings are of interest to practitioners, researchers, government policy

makers, supervisory authorities and professional bodies. By focusing on the effect of the SPMS and

accounting education on IPSAS disclosure level, this paper leaves room for future research to investigate

other relevant factors associated with the compliance with these standards whether in sub-Saharan Africa or

in other parts of the world.

Originality/value –This paper gives new insights into the assessment of the quality and transparency of

government financial reporting in sub-Saharan Africa by examining the extent of compliance with IPSAS in

this region. It is the first to investigate the impact of the SPMS and accounting education on this level.

Keywords Accounting education, Sub-Saharan Africa, IPSAS, Public sector reforms, Compliance level,

Public management systems

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The awareness of the traditional cash accounting drawbacks and the growing calls for

improving government financial transparency and accountability have largely stimulated

the revolution of public sector accounting. Like many countries, sub-Saharan African

governments have made considerable efforts and substantial changes to reshape their

public financial management systems through the introduction of accrual-based accounting,

and most importantly the implementation of International Public Sector Accounting

Standards (IPSAS). The widespread acceptance of these standards around the world fits

into an ongoing government reform agenda to overcome corruption and promote a more

performance-based public sector (Sellami and Gafsi, 2018a). Indeed, IPSAS are developed by

the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and its committee the International

Received 24 December 2018

Revised 18 March 2019

14 June 2019

Accepted 5 July 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Public

management

systems

InternationalJournalof Public

SectorManagement

Vol.33 No. 2/3,2020

pp.141-164

©EmeraldPublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI10.1108/IJPSM-12-2018-0274

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Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) with the aim to disclose more

transparent, complete, timely, comparable and reliable public financial information needed

for better public resource allocation, effective governance and decision making and a

more stable government framework. However, mere adoption of IPSAS does not lead to the

achievement of the expected objectives without proper application and faithful compliance

with these standards’requirements. In sub-Saharan Africa, most governments face serious

challenges in implementing and complying with IPSAS, depending on each country’s

specific factors (e.g. legal framework, political support, economic development, quality of

public administration and management, level of accounting education and training, etc.).

In this regard, this paper assesses the extent of compliance with IPSAS disclosures in

sub-Saharan African governments and investigates the impact of the strength of public

management systems (SPMS) and accounting education on this level.

A major motivation of this research is the lack of evidence on the assessment of the

extent of compliance with IPSAS as well as the factors affecting this level in the

sub-Saharan Africa region. Indeed, in the public sector accounting field, few studies

examined the level of IPSAS disclosure in other contexts such as Sukmadilaga et al. (2015) in

the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)[1] governments (especially Indonesia

and Malaysia), Abushamsieh et al. (2014) in the Middle East countries, Pérez and

López-Hernández (2009) in member countries of MERCOSUR (the Common Market of the

South)[2] and Benito et al. (2007) in 30 jurisdictions, most of which are European countries.

However, none of these studies empirically demonstrated the impact of country-specific

factors on compliance level with IPSAS in the selected contexts. Another motivation for this

paper is the awareness of the economic importance of the sub-Saharan African region both

locally and internationally and the crucial role of the public sector, as custodian of service

delivery and infrastructure development, in sustaining the African economic growth and

investment attraction. Hence, this undeniable importance of the public sector makes it

necessary to develop a high-quality accounting framework in order to enhance

transparency, protect the public treasury and discharge government accountability.

Furthermore, given the significant public management reforms experienced by sub-Saharan

African countries to overcome corruption and promote government performance, an

important debate has surfaced regarding the impact of these changes on public sector

accounting practice including the implementation of IPSAS. This research uses panel

regressions for a sample of 60 sub-Saharan African government entities during the period

2014–2017. The results show significant differences in the extent of compliance with IPSAS

across sub-Saharan African governments. They reveal a positive effect of the SPMS and

accounting education on IPSAS disclosure level in this region.

The contributions of this study are several. First, this paper complements prior literature

on public sector accounting by assessing the extent of compliance with IPSAS in the

sub-Saharan African context, and most importantly the influencing factors of this level

since most previous studies have focused on country/company-level determinants of

compliance with IAS/IFRS or local GAAP disclosures in the private sector (Adhikari and

Tondkar, 1992; Al-Shammari et al., 2008; Tsalavoutas, 2011; Glaum et al., 2013; Mazzi et al.,

2018). Second, unlike prior research relying only on IPSAS 1 and 2 (76 disclosure items)

(Abushamsieh et al., 2014; Pérez and López-Hernández, 2009), this paper develops a

self-constructed disclosure checklist (116 items) based on a more extensive set of standards

including IPSAS 1 and 2 for the presentation of financial statements and IPSAS 3 and 14

which contain the general disclosure requirements and adjustments to financial statements.

The selection of the above-mentioned standards is explained by their important content

since they relate to the basic and general information required to be disclosed in all

government financial statements prepared under accrual-based accounting. Moreover, this

research considers the budget information provided in IPSAS 24 as it is relevant to increase

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