Contemporary Challenges in Public Sector Reporting

Public sector accounting scholarship has witnessed enormous developments over the last decades. One area of scholarship is public sector accountability and public service accounting and reporting. Accountability in the public sector is a different, complex, chameleon-like and multifaced concept, encompassing several dimensions. With multiple stakeholders, the public sector requires a broader set of accountability forms, which goes beyond the scope of financial aspects, to include political, public, managerial, bureaucratic, professional, and personal accountability. In contemporary times the public sector needs to consider accounting and reporting on global and critical issues like climate change, sustainability, modern-day slavery, social inequality, taxation avoidance, biodiversity and ecological accounts. This chapter provides an overview of several developments in the past decades and reviews seven reporting frameworks that have been used for public sector reporting.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia James Guthrie
2. School of Business and Law, CQ University, Sydney, NSW, Australia Ann Martin-Sardesai

1. James Guthrie