Unintended Consequences in Implementing Public Sector Accounting Reforms in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Egypt, Nepal and Sri Lanka

Drawing on diffusion theory, this study investigates the implementation of public sector accounting reforms in three emerging economies - Egypt, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Data for the paper are derived through document analysis and semi structured interviews with public administrators, government accountants and members of professional accountancy bodies. The paper brings out the factors, including the bundling process, pro-innovation biases, informal and interpersonal networks, a boundary spanning process, organisational communication, power disparity, and dominance, all of which have either individually or collectively stifled the diffusion trajectory of public sector accounting reforms in Egypt, Nepal and Sri Lanka at the implementation phase. As a result, public sector accounting reforms have resulted in resistance, internal conflicts and unintended consequences, including the fabrication of results, in all three countries without any evidence of yielding better results for public sector governance and accountability.