Assessing Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP)

The research project was undertaken to explore one of the major obstacles in South Africa’s public sector, namely shifting the basis of accounting from modified cash accounting to accrual accounting. Contrary to cash accounting, which recognises expenditure only when cash is paid and income is received, accrual accounting recognises expenditure when the goods and services are received and income is recognised when services are rendered. Given the condition of financial reporting within departments with no accrual accounting compliant systems, no processes and policies in place to comply with accruals and lack of relevant capacity and skills, the purpose of the study was to determine the capability of the department to implement accrual accounting (mainly Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP)) in the public sector context. What needed to be determined was the readiness of the department for the implementation and the challenges and conditions that hampered the implementation of accrual accounting.