International public sector accounting standards are based on the international
accounting standards for the private sector. However, there are
major differences between the accountabilities and financial reporting
requirements of the public sector entities and those in the private sector.
These differences include the objectives, different processes for generating
revenues, the stakeholders and the fact that public sector entities are
generally much long lasting than those in the private sector. This chapter
considers these differences and the extent to which these will require
changes and adaptions to private sector accounting standards to make
them applicable to the public sector.