Conformity and diversity of accounting and financial reporting practices in Portuguese local government

Abstract

Portuguese governmental accounting has evolved from essentially a cash‐based budgetary accounting system to an accrual‐based financial and cost accounting system. Evidence from financial reports shows a great level of diversity amongst municipalities' voluntary compliance with the new accounting rules. Using a sample of Portuguese municipalities in the year 2003 we calculate and analyse the levels of compliance with the practices required by law and document the diversity in compliance across municipalities. The differences across municipalities are explained by some fundamental factors: size, financial conditions, urban characteristics, and diffusion across neighbouring municipalities. We show an unexpected effect of size. Larger municipalities comply less with accounting standards. Organizational complexity, conservative practices, and aversion to change may explain this result. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Can Resource Dependence and Coercive Isomorphism Explain Nonprofit Organizations’ Compliance With Reporting Standards?

“…Broadening the index from compliance with disclosure requirements to financial reporting compliance in general, Christiaens (1999) andDa Costa Carvalho, Camoes, Jorge, andFernandes (2007) turned their attention to the implementation of businesslike accounting principles in the public sector. Their compliance indices absorb disclosure requirements as well as other features related to compliance with newly introduced accounting and reporting standards: In addition to elements of disclosure, essential characteristics of financial reporting according to accrual accounting are listed.…”

“…In addition to the resource dependence and coercive isomorphism explanation, three control variables concerning "professionalism" are taken up in the study. This is primarily based on previous research (Christiaens, 1999;Da Costa Carvalho et al, 2007;Giroux & McLelland, 2003;Jegers & Houtman, 1993) and adds "being able to" comply to the hypotheses of "being forced into" compliance.…”

Testing Resource Dependency as a Motivator for NGO Self-Regulation

“…Finally, the control variables are as follows: (a) organizational age, defined as a continuous variable and measured as the natural log of the difference between 2010 and the year of establishment of the organization, and (b) organizational size, a continuous variable, measured by the natural log of an NGO's number of staff in 2010 (Da Costa Carvalho, Camoes, Jorge, & Fernandes, 2007). Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for the main variables in the analysis.…”

Analysis of Belgian Public Accounting and Its Compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) 1, 6 and 22

“…These national and international reforms to modernize accounting tally with the concept of New Public Management (NPM) which aims to give the public sector the benefit of the private sector's most effective management methods. The implementation of international accounting standards makes it possible to harmonize national accounting systems which are considered as very heterogeneous by Benito, Brusca and Montesinos (2007), Brusca & Condor (2002), Carvalho, Jorge & Fernandes (2007), the Federation of European Accountants (FEE) (2007), Lüder & Jones (2003) and Pina & Torres (2003).The aim of our paper is consequently to describe the development of Belgian public accounting, with particular attention to the 2003 accounting reform, the latest one, and to analyze the current state at each level of power. Then we will situate this system in an international context.…”

“…Public accounting systems in the world are quite heterogeneous and this diversity has been pointed out in several studies ((Benito et al, 2007;Brusca & Condor, 2002;Carvalho et al, 2007;FEE, 2007;Lüder & Jones, 2003;Pina & Torres, 2003). Thus, some countries actively try to modernize their accounting methods (such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) while others still use "basic" accounting systems without showing any willingness to evolve (Benito et al, 2007;Carlin, 2005;Groot & Budding, 2008;OECD, 2002;Van Der Hoek, 2005).…”