Article Title: Review of IPSASs Compliance in Sovereigns’ Financial Reporting Reviewer report Date: 26 December 2022 Thank you for the opportunity to review this article. The topic of the study is indeed interesting and useful. It presents an original idea of how to assess the extent of compliance with the IPSASs. However, I regret to suggest that the article is rejected at this stage, so that the author(s) is given ample time to consider the work that needs to be done. As it stands, the article has three major defects: The first is the quality of the language used. I empathise with the author(s) that, when the English language is foreign, it can be difficult to use especially for academic writing. I’m afraid that I found the majority of the paper barely understandable due to this problem. Secondly, the article is very long. The study deals with various aspects and lacks focus. It seems more like a mini-thesis, rather than an academic article. Perhaps the author(s) could consider breaking down the study into a number of articles. For example, page 4: ‘This situation prompted us to investigate the extent public capital expenditures were properly captured in sovereign entities financial statements in compliance to IPSASs or otherwise’ – just this aspect of capital expenditure would provide a more feasible and straightforward objective. Similarly, you could choose to just focus on heritage (section 2.2.6) or natural resources (s2.2.7). Alternatively, you could limit the scope of your study by excluding heritage and natural resources. This would simplify matters for you. Thirdly, the study lacks proper referencing. The article often includes sweeping statements that are not referenced, let alone justified. For example in Section 1.4 you state that: ‘The rendition of improper, inaccurate and unrealistic financial statements in many countries encourages sub-optimal public resources management, and poor public governance.’ – How did you arrive at such a conclusion? Is it from your readings? Where are the references?

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