Accounting for Government in the Global South: do Global Solutions Match Local Problems?

This paper examines the impact of globalised accounting and economic reforms on the public sectors of lessdeveloped countries. Our interest is in the international institutions that have been instrumental inintroducing common, global remedies which appear to be based on theoretical understandings as opposed toexperience of the effects of their interventions. A growing concern is being expressed about suchinterventions, but there is a sparcity of reports from the field. We argue that a re-think is required of type ofthe public sector financial management reforms which the international financial institutions and the nationalaid agencies have been promoting across the Global South for the last decade or so.