The objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it assesses existing local accounting and financial reporting practices in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focusing on the extent to which recent government financial statements published by ten selected countries adhere to mainstream qualitative features of public sector reporting. Second, it investigates the multiple institutional logics at play in the context of government accounting reforms (GARs) in SSA, involving international organisations, epistemic community members, policy makers and local actors. Data for the study are drawn from a content analysis and disclosure scoring of ten SSA government financial statements, supplemented by forty semi-structured interviews carried out in Nigeria and Tanzania. Our findings demonstrate how the generalised assumptive logics of international organisations, coupled with the market and professional logics of epistemic community members and state logics of local politicians, have led to the marginalisation of ‘good’ existing accounting and financial reporting practice in SSA (as reflected by the extent to which government financial statements adhere to mainstream features of public sector reporting) - while providing the countries with a strong impetus for undertaking a transition towards large-scale GARs involving accrual accounting and IPSASs. The role of the epistemic community in selectively ignoring the positive aspects of local accounting practice is a significant impediment. In this way, members of this epistemic community continue to execute their ‘relational power’ generated through professional knowledge, expertise and elite connections over the local actors, hence upholding the generalised assumptive logics. The paper argues that public accountability and transparency can be strengthened in SSA countries provided there is an ‘intelligent’ application of existing regulations and accounting systems, rather than seeking to merely replace them with externally imposed large-scale GARs.

本文的目的有两个。首先，它评估了撒哈拉以南非洲 (SSA) 现有的当地会计和财务报告做法，重点关注十个选定国家最近发布的政府财务报表在多大程度上符合公共部门报告的主流定性特征。其次，它调查了在 SSA 政府会计改革 (GAR) 背景下发挥作用的多种制度逻辑，涉及国际组织、认知社区成员、政策制定者和当地参与者。该研究的数据来自对 10 份 SSA 政府财务报表的内容分析和披露评分，并辅以在尼日利亚和坦桑尼亚进行的 40 次半结构化访谈。我们的发现证明了国际组织的广义假设逻辑如何，再加上认知社区成员的市场和专业逻辑以及地方政治家的国家逻辑，导致 SSA 中“良好”的现有会计和财务报告实践被边缘化（体现在政府财务报表坚持主流特征的程度）公共部门报告）——同时为各国向涉及权责发生制会计和 IPSAS 的大规模 GAR 过渡提供强大动力。认知共同体在选择性地忽略当地会计实践的积极方面的作用是一个重大障碍。通过这种方式，这个认知共同体的成员继续执行他们通过专业知识、专业知识和精英联系而产生的“关系力量”，对当地参与者，因此支持广义假设逻辑。该论文认为，只要对现有法规和会计系统进行“智能”应用，而不是仅仅用外部强加的大规模 GAR 来取代它们，就可以加强 SSA 国家的公共问责制和透明度。