Usefulness of valuation model of the IPSAS for governmental accountability: The perspective of supreme audit institutions

The governmental accounting systems are playing a crucial role in the development of administrative reforms, to be used as tools to improve the accountability of governments. The accounting valuation model proposed by the IPSAS aims to increase the usefulness of governmental financial statements to enhance financial transparency as a key topic of accountability. Based on a empirical research in Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) from 29 countries, this paper concludes that, under certain conditions, the implementation of fair value could enhance accountability in some countries, but it would raise problems of reliability, which require the incorporation of information about fair value estimates in the Notes of financial statements. In countries where fair value have not been used before, its adoption may raise unexpected difficulties to improve accountability, which have emerged in countries whose financial statements are already being issued under fair value accounting.