The purpose of this article is to assess the state of financial reporting in provincial government departments. One of the obstacles in transforming financial reporting in South Africa is to change from cash to accrual accounting. The research revealed that while most public sector accounting guidelines and legislation are in place, government departments are still using cash accounting. The current accounting information system seems to be unsuitable for accrual accounting. Respondents assigned a poor rating to the effectiveness of public sector financial reporting, and the slow rate at which this system was being transformed.