Introduction: The Gordian knot of public sector accounting and the role of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards

Rossi, Francesca Manes; Cohen, Sandra; Caperchione, Eugenio; Brusca, Isabel

doi:10.1177/0020852316665048

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(11 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a similar vein, studies conducted in Indonesia have delineated the fact that despite the adoption of accrual accounting at different administrative levels, the prevalence of the historically institutionalised control-oriented public administration, inadequate accounting skills amongst public accountants and a poor designing of reforms have seriously hindered its widespread application, thereby keeping the old-styled cash accounting intact in practice (Harun et al , 2012, 2015; McLeod and Harun, 2014). Studies conducted in Latin America show that countries in the region have put more emphasis on convergence with accrual basis IPSASs, but their efforts have been thwarted by the technicalities inherited into these standards (Brusca et al , 2016; Manes-Rossi et al , 2016).…”

Section: Public Sector Accounting Reforms In Emerging Economies With a Focus On Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the institutional and decision-usefulness factors in the implementation of accrual accounting reforms in the public sector of Tanzania

Mbelwa

Adhikari

Shahadat

2019

JAEE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that have resulted in the effective implementation of accrual accounting reforms in the Central Government of Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach The paper relies on the ideas of institutional theory and some aspects of decision-usefulness so as to delineate the external pressures enforcing the Government of Tanzania to embrace accrual accounting and the factors complicating its implementation at organisational level (within government entities). The authors draw on quantitative techniques and the explanatory and cross-sectional survey research strategies and methods for data analysis. Findings Our findings suggest that the coercive pressures from donors and auditors along with the normative pressures surfaced by the training of employees generate a significant impact on designing the effective administrative model of accrual accounting. In a lesser extent, pressures from the National Board of Accountants and Auditors and cultural factors are positively correlated to the implementation of accrual accounting in the Tanzanian context. Of the factors the authors examined, the management changes are proved to be least effective. Unawareness of the key stakeholders has caused weak political and regulatory commitments. Accrual accounting implementation is further exacerbated by inadequate technical and personnel competence. Ultimately, the implementation of the accrual accounting has increased significant managerial accountability though a major segment of such behaviour is unexplained by the factors the authors employed in the study. Practical implications The effective implementation of accrual accounting relies on improvements in cultural and human-related issues. What is important to understand is that accrual accounting is more of a management reform incorporating changes in broader aspects of institutional and accountability mechanisms, rather than just an adoption of particular accounting technologies. Without such broader changes, accrual accounting reforms can be detrimental providing the technocrats and government officials with a space for manipulating financial information, Tanzania serving as an example. Originality/value The study highlights the case of an emerging economy in which accrual accounting is actually in effect and has impacted on managerial accountability, but is struggling to engender intended results and outcomes at organisational level.

show abstract

Section: Public Sector Accounting Reforms In Emerging Economies With a Focus On Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the institutional and decision-usefulness factors in the implementation of accrual accounting reforms in the public sector of Tanzania

Mbelwa

Adhikari

Shahadat

2019

JAEE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, there are promising steps ahead towards harmonization from the budgeting standpoint, too. Anyway, it does not necessarily require to entirely replace all existing tools currently in use for reporting or for the decision-making process, since a separation between a mandatory set of harmonized standards and other alternative reports embedding national features and preferences is sustained by international literature (Manes-Rossi et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Complete the Cluster Analysis' Results We Applied The Multimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were mainly inspired by the private practices and embedded almost unanimously the accrual principles. In this dynamic context, many countries worldwide, and specifically the European ones, have recently passed through profound changes at all levels of government, having accruals as a benchmark of high-quality reporting that enjoys international acceptance (Manes-Rossi et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cluster analysis, Multidimensional Scaling technique, Principal Component Analysis, correlation analysis) used to assess the status of accrual reform and its power to influence the degree of public management initiatives' achievement. Through all of these, our study will add high value to the scientific research on the "Gordian knot" of the public sector (Manes-Rossi et al, 2016b), filling as well the literature gap regarding the existing evidence at OECD country level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Public management reform under the dome of accruals

Ştefănescu¹

2020

RC-SAR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es atestiguar el papel primordial de la contabilidad de devengo en el proceso de reforma de la gestión pública, recopilando evidencias sobre los desafíos de la implementación y los resultados percibidos. Este estudio cubre una importante laguna de la literatura y enriquece la investigación científica al apuntalar las cuestiones abordadas en los paradigmas de la Nueva Gestión Pública y la Gobernanza, que ejercen una gran presión sobre la reforma de los sistemas públicos en favor de los principios de devengo. El diseño de la investigación realizada para lograr nuestro objetivo combina con éxito varios métodos y técnicas estadísticas (por ejemplo, análisis de conglomerados, técnica de escalamiento multidimensional, análisis de componentes principales, análisis de correlación) para evaluar el estado de la reforma de la contabilidad de devengo y su capacidad de influir en el grado de cumplimiento de las iniciativas de la gestión pública. Los resultados revelan que la mayoría de los países de la UE y la OCDE han completado sus programas de reforma de la contabilidad de devengo, que aportan muchos beneficios al sistema público en su conjunto, lo que ha dado lugar a importantes logros en las iniciativas de gestión, como la mejora de la transparencia pública y la rendición de cuentas a través de la presentación de informes sobre la contabilidad y la presupuestación. Por lo tanto, el mundo de la acumulación es sin duda la mejor manera de mejorar la gestión del sector público y aumentar su eficiencia, proporcionando información de alta calidad para el proceso de adopción de decisiones y permitiendo también una mayor comparabilidad entre los países a través de la armonización de la presentación de informes. The main aim of this paper is to attest to the foremost role of accruals in achieving the public management reform, gathering evidence on implementation challenges and perceived outcomes. This study covers a significant literature gap and enriches the scientific research by underpinning the questions addressed in the New Public Management and Governance paradigms that put a lot of pressure on reforming public systems towards accrual principles. For fulfilling our goal, we performed an empirical analysis on three stages focusing on identifying the current state of budgeting and accounting bases across EU-OECD countries as a prerequisite of facilitating the wider public management reform initiatives looking for possible connections between them. The research design undergone for achieving our aim successfully combines various statistical methods and techniques (e.g. cluster analysis, Multidimensional Scaling technique, Principal Component Analysis, correlation analysis) to assess the status of accrual reform and its power to influence the degree of public management initiatives’ achievement. The results reveal that a majority of EU-OECD countries have completed their accrual reform programmes that bring many benefits to the public system as a whole, leading to major achievements of management initiatives, such as enhancing public transparency and accountability throughout accounting and budgeting reporting. Thus, accrual world is certainly the best way to improve public sector management and raise its efficiency, providing high-quality information for the decision-making process and allowing as well greater comparability between countries throughout reporting harmonization.

show abstract

“…Government and accounting systems have been changing significantly during recent decades (Manes-Rossi et al, 2016b). In line with the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm and economic rationalities (Nistor and Deaconu, 2016), financial information systems have been aligned towards an enhanced level of accountability and transparency (Brusca et al, 2018;Christiaens et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards accounting harmonization in Europe: a multinational survey among budget experts

Frintrup

Schmidthuber

Hilgers

2020

International Review of Administrative Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Severe fiscal problems, the insufficient comparability of financial information and increasing demands for better accountability require national governments and international organizations to change their current accounting regimes and to move towards a system of standardized accounting practices. As the International Public Sector Accounting Standards have insufficiently moved Europe towards accounting harmonization in recent years, the European Commission currently aims to suggest the adoption of European Public Sector Accounting Standards. Based on a multinational survey among budget experts, the current article investigates budget experts’ perceptions towards adopting the European Public Sector Accounting Standards. The findings compare attitudes towards new accounting practices and European Public Sector Accounting Standards reform expectations on a comparative basis, and relate them to the current national accounting system and contextual factors. Empirical results indicate great variation in terms of European Public Sector Accounting Standards reform expectations across countries. The study concludes with discussing the implications of the findings for international accounting research, accounting harmonization and the development of a European accounting system. Points for practitioners In this early stage of European Public Sector Accounting Standards development, understanding the factors associated with a country’s decision to adopt them could be helpful for practitioners and professionals. The current study identifies information technology costs as a potential barrier to implementing the European Public Sector Accounting Standards. Politicians and standard setters might take this into account while developing the European Public Sector Accounting Standards. Furthermore, this article reveals that encouraging the voluntary introduction of accrual accounting in the first stage of European Public Sector Accounting Standards development might be the appropriate approach of the European Commission.

show abstract

Introduction: The Gordian knot of public sector accounting and the role of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Investigation of the institutional and decision-usefulness factors in the implementation of accrual accounting reforms in the public sector of Tanzania

Investigation of the institutional and decision-usefulness factors in the implementation of accrual accounting reforms in the public sector of Tanzania

Public management reform under the dome of accruals

Towards accounting harmonization in Europe: a multinational survey among budget experts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About