| Abstract: | Harmonisation between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Government Finance Statistics is the highest priority for Australian public-sector reporting. This paper addresses the question of the reporting entity in a harmonised GAAP-GFS framework and discusses whether the GFS General Government Sector meets the criteria for the general-purpose reporting entity. The objective of harmonisation is to achieve an Australian accounting standard for a single set of government reports which are auditable and comparable between jurisdictions, and in which the outcome statements are directly comparable with the relevant budget statements. Since there is widespread interest in General Government Sector information by users, the sector is the obvious candidate for the government general-purpose reporting entity. |
