New development: Assurance on public sector sustainability reporting-time to be proactive

This article highlights the relevance of assurance of sustainability reporting (SR) in the public sector, discussing who can develop the assurance process and what standards can be used for this purpose. It provides a contribution in an original and new area that will be of interest to standard setters, supreme audit institutions, practitioners and scholars in the field of public sector accounting and auditing. The article contributes to the creation of a legitimate space for SR for public sector entities. Sustainability reporting (SR) has gained momentum, but it still faces many challenges in the public sector. First, SR standards must be developed, a process started by the IPSASB. Second, to be credible, this information needs to go through an assurance process, which in turn requires the existence of relevant assurance standards. This article sheds light on the second challenge in order to analyse how assurance can be operationalized in the public sector.