Identifying the Components of Public Sector Debt Reporting in Iran

Hidden debt is an issue of great concern. The findings of this study show that public sector institutions, especially public non-governmental organizations, government institutions and companies, as well as insurance and pension funds have hidden debts that can cause a crisis for the entire economy. Therefore, considering the current situation in the country and the existence of many hidden and unreported debts in the public sector and the socio-political responsibilities of the government, the need to address the various aspects of reporting debts and liabilities of the public sector and moving towards financial transparency in the public sector seems more necessary than before. This study uses a qualitative method and an approach based on theme analysis to identify the factors affecting public sector debt reporting in Iran. This qualitative study, using purposeful sampling method (snowball), gathers data from 20 experts with expertise and experience in the public sector in the form of semi-structured interviews about the factors affecting public sector debts reporting in four Areas. The areas are including scope of the public sector (Institutional Coverage), type of debts and liabilities of the public sector (instrument Coverage), valuation of debt instrument and appropriate reporting framework of debts and liabilities of the public. Then, the interviews are transcribed and coded by theme analysis method. This study identifies out of 494 open source codes; 12 Level 1 sub-themes, 33 Level 2 sub-themes and 5 main teams including significance and necessity, classification criteria, sizes and levels, classification and reporting, which are determined as components of public sector debt reporting.