Research Information System
EDPACS, vol.70, no.7, pp.1-33, 2025 (Scopus)
Although sustainability reports have reached a certain level of maturity in the private sector, they have not yet achieved the desired levels in the public sector. Public organizations are responsible not only for making their operations sustainable but also for societal welfare, environmental protection, and the provision of public services. Therefore, greater emphasis on sustainability reporting in the public sector is expected. This study investigates the importance of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability reporting in public organizations from the perspective of internal auditors, as well as the challenges in the reporting and auditing processes, the necessity of digital tools, and assurance auditing. In this context, following a mixed-methods approach, structured interviews with public internal auditors and the Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP method were conducted. According to the findings, from the perspective of internal auditors, sustainability reporting in the public sector is important for environmental, economic, and social purposes, respectively. Among the sub-criteria, “sustainable use of natural resources” and “access to funding sources and financial sustainability” are identified as the most significant criteria. The greatest challenges in the reporting process include workload and a lack of qualified personnel. Although these challenges can be alleviated through training, auditing, and technological tool support, the cost to national economies may be high. Additionally, all internal auditors have asserted that assurance auditing is necessary for sustainability reports in the public sector, and assurance auditing can be conducted by supreme auditing institutions, internal auditors, certified external auditors, or international expert organizations.