The purpose of this article is to highlight the challenges in recognising, for the first time, public sector entities' assets such as property, plant and equipment in their statements of its financial position. Currently government departments do not have reliable fixed assets registers. The process of applying accrual accounting is therefore seriously hampered. The research revealed that the asset capturing process would take more than three years and might be ready only by 2011 - 12 years after the promulgation of the PFMA in 1999. Although GRAP 17 Property, plant and equipment provides assistance, some confusion still exists among government officials regarding the measurement of assets that are required to be recognised for the first time.