International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASS) Assessment of Public Entities “Going Concern†Assumption Concept in Africa

Legislation enacted by the elected representatives is the key control and guide for public sector entities, defining the constituent limits and oversight. Financial reporting under general acceptable accounting standards of IPSASs and the IFRSs, hold the precondition assumption of ‘going concern’ as fundamental requiring the assessment benchmarks and the determination be disclosed and justified accordingly. This study seeks to assess the IPSASs going concern assumption of IPSAS of financial reporting in public entities, as a prescribed underlying assumption. The methodology adopted for this study was mixed research methodology, through questionnaires and interviews of PAFA professionals across Africa selected randomly. The findings revealed that the IPSASs assessment and determination of its ‘going concern’ assumption when applied to public sector entities is difficult and complex. The findings further revealed that the ‘going concern’ assessment of sovereign governments political systems in Africa is technically complex in determination and further compounded by the periodic appointments of public policy and officials in terms of the constitutional provisions which renders disruptiveness the public administration, compromises service potential and delivery, thereby causing subjectivity in the assessment of the IPSASs going concern assumption.