Please contact the CFA Institute which has the list of countries that use the International Accounting Standards. CFA Institute is housed within the campus of the University of Virginia, USA. Do a Google search to get their phone number.
Be cautious - the link above states that Governments that already apply full accrual accounting standards and apply accounting standards that are broadly consistent with IPSAS requirements includes Canada. We do not apply full accrual accounting in Canada, although we do follow our own standard similar to that.
We have a body called the Financial Reporting and Assurance Standards of Canada, and within that a body called The Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB). It was created to serve the public interest by establishing accounting standards for the public sector. PSAB also provides guidance for financial and other performance information reported by the public sector.
The Accounting Standards Oversight Council (AcSOC) oversees the activities of PSAB and ensures they follow their rigorous due process. AcSOC appoints PSAB members and provides input on strategy and priorities. AcSOC also assesses and reports to the public on the performance of PSAB.
Moving Canada to a full accrual accounting basis (much as the Auditor General of Canada would love it) is fraught with many difficulties. Perhaps one of our Australian collagues can talk to the difficulties they experienced in experiementing with full accrual accounting. Canada operates on a modified cash management basis in its public sector to ensure that the cherished principle of "every dollar spent on the public's behalf is duly examined and voted on in the house of commons by elected representatives"
Accrual accounting was developed in the private sector to measure annual profit – so it is not relevant for the public sector. A move to accrual accounting moves from actual, objective, hard cash to estimates which can be manipulated. In the cash basis the actual payments for capital projects are compared with the budget. Under accruals only estimates (depreciation) are provided. Similarly, with the cash basis the actual cash collected is reported. Under accruals we move to estimates of the revenue that is expected to be collected.
All the objective evidence from the few countries that have adopted accrual accounting show that it is expensive and does not actually provide the expected benefits. In contrast, the financial statements are much more difficult to understand and so public accountability is weakened.
The British war ministry adopted accrual accounting in the early 1920s. But this reform was reversed
a few years later as the benefits were less than the high costs. It was again more widely adopted at the end of the century, but in 2003, UK National Audit Office reported that: In most cases it is too soon to identify any discernible benefits from better resource management”
In 2005, an academic study by Connolly and Hyndman concluded that: “there was little evidence that [accrual] information was extensively used in decision making… the costs were seen as substantial”.
Only five of the governments of the 20 largest economies in the world use accruals for their central government accounts. The following countries have not adopted accrual accounting for their central government financial statements:
Argentina Brazil China Germany India Indonesia Italy Japan Mexico Russia Saudi Arabia
South Africa South Korea Turkey.
Only around 20 central governments have issued accrual based financial statements. So 90% of governments still use the modified cash basis. Birmingham City Council adopted it in 1850 – but it was not adopted in Westminster for another 150 years. The Irish Government does not use accrual.
In 2008, another academic study, in the British health service, found that, “there was no evidence that the perceived benefits from the introduction of... accruals accounting... were being realised” (Mellett, Macniven & Marriott).
The accountancy bodies (like ICAN and IFAC) and the accounting firms support the accrual basis as it provides lots of jobs for accountants and consultancy work for audit firms. The number of accountants in central government increased from less than 600 in 1989 to 2,200 in 2003 – the time when accruals was introduced in UK central government.
In 2015, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency of Nigeria spent N15million ($75,000) valuing its assets. Kano State has estimates of at least N70million to value its assets for the adoption of accrual accounting. Is this more important than buying drugs or training nurses?
In 2016, 10 years after the adoption of accrual accounting by the French central government, its Auditor-General reported that: Anyway, the benefits of accrual accounting, to date, do not appear to justify the level of resources devoted to its introduction by the administration (page 69). In November 2017, the Auditor-General of Germany also issued a report that was very critical of accruals, see: www.bundesrechnungshof.de/en/veroeffentlichungen/sonderberichte/epsas?set_language=en
For more details on the costs and actual benefits of accrual accounting in the public sector see:
http://www.icgfm.org/journal/2012/no1/chapter5.pdf and