Public sector accounting in developing countries - what we know and what we still need to know

Event details

This event will discuss public sector accounting in developing countries - what we know and what we still need to know.

Speaker biography

Pawan Adhikari is a Professor of Accounting at Essex Business School. His research follows two distinct directions: a contribution to accounting theory and promoting impact research. His impact research in public sector accountability has been widely used in policy making in South Asia. He is a recipient of the two World Bank funding and is involved in facilitating research in participatory budgeting in Benin and climate change in South Asia. He is a part of the EC’s grant to instigate capacity building in Sri Lanka. He serves as an AE of the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management.

Abstract

This paper examines the achievements, unintended consequences and the changing contexts of public sector accounting reforms in developing countries. In so doing, it points to two important directions for advancing public sector accounting research in developing countries. Firstly, it suggests moving away from the narrow technical contextualisation and the ‘consultancy-based functionalist’ approaches offered by New Public Management (NPM) over the last three decades. Secondly, it advocates rethinking the imposition of the Word Bank’s development discourses on developing countries and applying the notion of ‘development’ as more of an analytical concept that can capture the idea of ‘publicness’, rather than as a phenomenon specific to a developing country context. This may enable public sector accounting research to implicate public value through accounting, which could have lasting impacts on developing countries’ societal and economic development.

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