AN INVESTIGATION ON THE CHALLENGES OF ADOPTION OF IPSAS (INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING STANDARD) IN GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES, AGENCIES AND DEPARTMENT

Over the years, countries of the world have defined and set the standards of financial reporting in their individual territories. However, globalization has brought about ever increasing collaboration, international trade and commerce among the countries of the world; hence, there is grave need for increased uniformity in the standards guiding financial statements so that such statement would remain comprehensible and convene the same information to users across the world. The need for the development of unified accounting standards has been the primary driver of international public sector Accounting Standards for public sector financial reporting. While the commercial entities across the world are moving toward international financial Reporting standards (IFRS), governments are harmonizing with International Public sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). The international Public sector Accounting Standards govern the accounting by public sector entities, with the exception of Government Business Enterprises.

Looking at the previous years, cash basis of accounting is observed to be the commonly used basis in the public sector which has some limitations and setbacks that affects financial transactions such as poor budget implementation, mismanagement of public fund etc. This can be traced to the fact that while using the cash basis of accounting, there is no attempt to match an expense with the revenue it generates. This means that income statement and balance sheet are not good pictures of recent business conditions and an expense written against specific revenue may not have been incurred for generating the revenue.the objectives if this study are to examines the effect of adopting International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in Government agencies and ministries and to identify the challenges of migrating to Accrual Basis IPSAS in public sector. This study would increase level of confidence and improved decision-making and in government financial reporting by emphasizing on disclosures and presentations of information relevant to the key stakeholders in Government financial reporting.

This study focused on the empirical evaluation of IPSAS on public sector financial management in Nigeria with particular reference to Federal University Oye Ekiti .The study made use of only Accountants and In this public institutions.