Which central governments have actually adopted the accrual basis?

[andywynne]

It is easy to get the impression that the whole world is moving to accrual accounting with inflated figures banded about in presentations from the IPSAS Board and others.  However, less than 20 countries have actually made the move.  The only countries which have actually issued accrual based financial statements for their central government ministries are as follows (with the year this was adopted and the standards used):

•   Spain (1989) – national standards (IPSAS from 2011)
•   New Zealand (1991) - IFRS 
•   Australia (1994) - IFRS
•   USA (1998) – national standards
•   UK (2002) - IFRS
•   Canada (2003) – national standards   
•   Estonia (2004) - IPSAS
•   France (2006) – national standards
•   Colombia (2006)
•   Latvia (2006)
•   Romania (2006)
•   Switzerland (2007) - IPSAS
•   Denmark 2007) – national standards
•   Slovak Republic (2008)
•   Cayman Islands (2008)
•   Lithuania (2009) – national standards
•   Barbados (2012).

Several other countries are moving towards accrual accounting, but may take a long time!  I would be very interested to receive any comments or suggested amendments to the above list.

[petagny]

I'm sure Andy is right about adopters being in the minority. Should Sweden and Finland be on the list though?

[andywynne]

In Sweden the central government ministries report on the (modified) cash basis, but their agencies report on an accrual basis.  My understanding is that the position in Finland is very similar.  On this basis, these governments should not be added to the list as this only refers to reporting by central government ministries.  In fact the Cayman Islands should be removed because it is not a country (as still ruled by London) and France should not be included as the individual ministries still report on the cash basis, although consolidated financial statements are produced on the accrual basis for central government.