Digital View on the Financial Statements’ Consolidation in Russian Public Sector

Abstract

The major New Public Management reform in Russia began in 2004 and envisaged ideas of “top-down” modernization through adoption in national regulations of international reporting ideas from Government Financial Statistic. Based on online financial 2010–2014 public sector annual reports set on official websites open access this study analyzed the main elements from 2010–2014 Russian Annual questionnaire reports represented to International Monetary Fund in compliance with Government Finance Statistics Manual for the Integrated Correspondence System. The General government’s consolidated financial statements consist of three sectors: Central, State and Local Governments. Herewith Central government sector includes such Social Security Funds as Pension Fund of the RF, Russian Social Insurance Fund, and Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund that is different from Government Finance Statistics Manual comprehending. The uncertainty of Public Sector definition leads to the incomparability of Russian Public Sector Annual questionnaire reports. The research analyzes the main challenges from annual reports’ consolidation in Russian public sector as a whole. The paper shows a scheme of the consolidation’s process. The research result allows the transformation of reform ideas of into the “local” reporting practice action space characterized by two different accounting contexts: shaped by both “non-local” international reporting standards and the “local” Russian reporting tradition.