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Institutionalisation of the Cash Basis International Public Sector Accounting Standard in the Central Government of Bangladesh: An example of delay and resistance

Salah Uddin Rajib (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh)
Pawan Adhikari (Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester, UK)
Mahfuzul Hoque (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Mahmuda Akter (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies

ISSN: 2042-1168

Article publication date: 18 March 2019

Issue publication date: 18 March 2019

871

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine public sector accounting reforms, mainly the adoption and implementation of the Cash Basis International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) in the Central Government of Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the ideas of new institutionalism, the paper investigates the factors which have forced the country to accept the Cash Basis IPSAS but have delayed its implementation in practice.

Findings

Different approaches towards the Cash Basis IPSAS are now distinct in the Central Government of Bangladesh. Differences between Bangladesh and other emerging economies have been narrowed as the potency of institutional pressures has increased, and there is a risk, as experienced in other emerging economies, that the very adoption of the Cash Basis IPSAS may remain more a rhetoric than a reality in Bangladesh. The paper demonstrates that the extent to which professional accountants and their associations participate in reforms determines the public sector accounting reform trajectories in emerging economies.

Practical implications

The paper demonstrates that reforms driven by indigenous administrators can have the potential of becoming more instrumental in emerging economies than the externally propagated reforms, such as IPSASs and accrual accounting. What is important is to advance incrementally those public sector accounting reforms that local administrators have identified as important, that they could cope with their existing knowledge and capacity, and that they are interested in engaging with the reform process.

Originality/value

First, the study has contributed to extending neo-institutional theory by bringing out the responses of different stakeholders responsible for implementing public sector accounting reforms, mainly the Cash Basis IPSAS, in practice. Next, the paper has raised a question as to whether the Cash Basis IPSAS could be an appropriate reform measure for the central government of Bangladesh.

Keywords

Citation

Rajib, S.U., Adhikari, P., Hoque, M. and Akter, M. (2019), "Institutionalisation of the Cash Basis International Public Sector Accounting Standard in the Central Government of Bangladesh: An example of delay and resistance", Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 28-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAEE-10-2017-0096

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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