The Impact of international Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) Adoption on Financial Reporting Quality: The Case of African Union Commission (AUC)
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Date
2026-06-02
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Addis A baba University
Abstract
The study sought to examine the relationship between adopting IPSAS and financial reporting quality
at the African Union Commission. Through explanatory research design, the study analyzed the
relationship between six aspects of IPSAS adoption including policy commitment, system readiness,
human competence, governance support, resource provision, and implementation maturity and the
quality of financial reporting. The primary data used for the analysis was collected using a structured
questionnaire from 209 respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0 was used to
analyze the data through computation of descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regressions.
The results revealed that the six independent variables had a statistically significant positive
relationship with financial reporting quality. Together, they explained 62.1% of the variance (R² =
0.621, p < 0.001). In particular, policy commitment had the highest impact on financial reporting
quality (β = 0.299, p < 0.001), followed by governance support (β = 0.248, p < 0.001), system
readiness (β = 0.172, p = 0.002), human competence (β = 0.146, p = 0.013), resource provision (β =
0.138, p = 0.015), and implementation maturity (β = 0.116, p = 0.033). Financial reporting quality
at the African Union Commission was found to be moderate (M = 3.50). Thus, it can be concluded
that IPSAS adoption has resulted in an improvement in the quality of reporting at the AUC;
nevertheless, there is still room for further progress. In particular, the findings highlight the need for
the development of such areas as leadership, internal audit effectiveness, FMIS capacity, training
initiatives, and resource availability for IPSAS adoption. Finally, the research calls for future
exploration of IPSAS implementation at regional and international organizations in order to derive
relevant lessons and best practices.
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Keywords
IPSAS Adoption, Financial Reporting Quality, Policy Commitment, Governance Support, System Readiness, Human Competence, Implementation Maturity.