Many governments have replaced traditional cash-based accounting with some form of accrualbased accounting system. However, empirical evidence on the effects of the public accounting system on fiscal policy is scarce. Following rules by the federal states, municipalities in Germany have adopted accrual-based accounting systems gradually. By exploiting variations over time and across states I find no evidence for an impact on the overall financial balance. However, my findings suggest that accrual accounting has altered the structure of the budget. Revenues from the sales of non-financial assets have decreased significantly. This supports the hypothesis that municipalities had used these one-off measures before to meet fiscal constraints. Using data on entities controlled by the municipalities, the analysis provides no evidence for repercussions on these public funds, institutions or enterprises.

Introduction

Traditionally, the budget and accounting information of governments have been based on the cash principle. Starting in the 1980s, public sector accounting has experienced some fundamental changes. Private sector-style management instruments have been implemented, and in many countries a move towards accrual accounting has taken place (OECD/IFAC, 2017). Primarily, these reforms aspire to reveal the long-term budgetary impact of policy decisions and to capture public assets and liabilities. With the intention to improve fiscal monitoring, the discussion about accrual standards for public sector accounting has gained renewed interest after the sovereign debt crisis. The European Commission currently intends to introduce harmonized, compulsory accrualbased European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS) for all member states (European Commission, 2013). The voluntary switch to accrual accounting has already been actively encouraged and sponsored by the Commission. Despite the relevance of the topic and the prominent political debate, empirical evidence on the effects of the public accounting system is scarce. In particular, there has been little research on the costs and benefits of such reform. There are some studies, mainly from the accounting literature, that primarily analyze the effect of accrual-based accounting on the efficiency of the public sector.

The main aim of this paper is to study the convergence between micro and macro systems of government accounting information, looking to contribute to the analysis of accounting harmonization process in the EU, as a tool to improve the comparability of financial, budgetary, and aggregated statistical reports, in order to improve social, political and economic decision-making and accountability. All this is obviously located in the current context of the EU, with a high degree of harmonization of accounting standards between the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), and those applied for the preparation of national accounts, ruled by European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). We have carried out different analytical methodologies to study the convergence of public accounting systems in the EU for 2014 and 2015, considering that the new European System of National Accounts came in force since September 2014. First, for each country, we calculate a global index and partial indexes for central and local governments. Secondly, we apply an alternative model based on the distance between the adjustments of each country and the extreme situation, that would imply null adjustments. As a supplementary, we focus on the relative weight of adjustments by country and for each level of government. The study concludes, among other findings, that the importance of adjustments differs between countries and areas of government. Adjustments connected to recognition criteria (accrual or others), particularly significant from the point of view of the approach to GAAP, rank first in importance at the central government level, but are less significant at the local level.

Introduction

The analysis of the convergence of public accounting systems in the EU is a dynamic research that needs to be updated depending on statistical, methodological and regulatory changes that are occurring in the EU. Therefore, we consider that the introduction of the new ESA 2010 requires a review of the state of convergence of accounting systems. The main justification of this study comes from a continuous research work on this field, in order to have a “permanent picture” of the process of convergence between systems, focused on the transition to accrual criteria. After a review ofthe main differences between macro and micro governmental accounting systems inthe EU countries, we willfocus this paper on themethodological analysis ofthe differences listed in Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) Notification Tables developed by the Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT), studying the differences between the budgetary accounting and Government Financial Statistics (GFS) in different EU MSs at central and local governments. Specifically, this study attempts to answer the following research questions: (a) What are the most relevant features of the adjustments for differences between national accounts and budgetary accounts of each country in determining the deficit with the new methodology at the two government levels? (b) What is the global convergence between both accounting information systems at central and local government? (c) Whatis the partial convergence showed by the differences associated with classification of transactions, recognition criteria, delimitation of the sectors or other differences between both accounting information systems at central and local government? The research is focused on accrual criteria and analyses both, central and local government levels.

Abstract

Accrual accounting is expected to be fully implemented in Malaysia by year 2015. However, there are many factors that are not yet solved which lead to the implementation resistant by certain groups. Due of that, this study will investigate the level of users’ resistance, particularly among the government servants of Malaysia Accountant General Department (AGD) and the factors that influence users’ resistance in the migration of accrual accounting. Those factors consist of (i) top management (organisation), (ii) technologies and system, (iii) colleague opinion, (iv) self-efficacy, and (v) external issues. 600 questionnaires were distribute the Malaysia Accountant General Department in headquarter and its branches in Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan (five locations). The results show that technologies and system and colleague opinion are able to influence users’ resistance in the implementation of accrual accounting. This result is important for the government to reduce the resistance of government servant in AGD in order to raise users’ awareness in migrating to the accrual accounting.

Introduction

Accrual accounting is one of accounting basis under which transactions are recognized as the underlying event occurred, regardless of the timing of the cash receipts and payments to be made (Khan & Mayes, 2009). By referring to Accountants Today (2011), Malaysia intends to migrate its cash based International Public Sector Accounting System (IPSAS) to the accrual accounting by 2015. This initiative is in line with the current global development, which expects the government to provide greater accountability and transparency for government finances while optimizing the decision making. However, the Malaysian government’s plan to switch from a cash accounting system to an accrual accounting system has been delayed and will only be implemented after certain laws are passed. Initially, the proposed plan was for the public sector to make the switch on Jan 1, 2016 (TheEdge, 2015).

Public corruption, experienced by many developing countries, has been arguably exacerbated by weak governmental accounting practices (Cohen, Guillamon, Lapsley, & Robbins, 2015). The criticisms of governmental accounting stem from its failure to address the needs of users. For instance, the disconnection from macro-economic management (Premchand, 1995), its inadequacy to detect fraudulent activities, and in concealing corruption scandals (Neu, Everett, Rahaman, & Martinez, 2013). As a response, to help enable better governance practices to facilitate anti-corruption, many governments in developing countries are implementing accrual accounting (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013). This accords with advice from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) who issued an international framework for public governance. This set out the importance of accrual accounting in the public sector, and argued that better financial reporting is critical to reduce levels of public corruption (see Ace, 2014; IFAC/CIPFA, 2014). More widely, there has been coverage by international media on the role of accounting in the context of corruption (Lehman & Thorne, 2015). Prior research has noted the technical nature of accrual accounting for sound financial management in public sector organisations (Christiaens & Rommel, 2008; Ellwood & Newberry, 2007; Groot & Budding, 2008; Hyndman & Connolly, 2011; Lapsley, Mussari, & Paulsson, 2009; Saleh & Pendlebury, 2006) especially concerning its ‘perceived’ benefits for decision usefulness and accountability (Bergmann, 2012; Laughlin, 2012). However, accounting arguably has a broader governance potential (Ferry and Ahrens, 2017; Ferry, Eckersley, & Zakaria, 2015). Indeed, ‘Accounting Forum’ has called for more research into governance and anti-corruption and how calculative practices such as accounting can be significant beyond their logic of a technical potential (Ahmad Khair, Haniffa, & Abdul Karim, 2015; Lehman & Thorne, 2015). Accrual accounting can play a key role in improving the governance of public sector organisations (IFAC/CIFPA, 2014) and in maintaining their integrity (Doig & McIvor, 2003; Espejo, Bula, & Zarama, 2001). However, if accounting is analysed merely at a logic level of its technical potential, it would miss the rhetorical appeals to credibility and emotion that engender a broader governance and socio-economic potential (Ahrens & Ferry, 2015, 2016; Broadbent & Laughlin, 2002). This paper addresses the rhetorical appeal of accrual accounting beyond its technical logic, and considers its credibility and emotional potential for governance and anti-corruption through the case of Malaysia. This is pertinent at a time of serious corruption allegations in Malaysia up to Prime Ministerial level and public anti-corruption (and by implication anti-governmental) protests. Further, whilst there has been a history of neo-liberal reforms in the public sector it has been questioned whether the Malaysian populace has actually benefitted (Ahmad Khair et al., 2015). Such a case is particularly illustrative for the international community, not least due to the globalization of developing nations, such as Malaysia, evidenced through increasing international trade levels and inward and outward investment.

4th World Conference on Business, Economics and Management, WCBEM

هدف این مطالعه تجزیه و تحلیل تأثیر ارزش افزوده اطلاعات حاصل براساس دو سیستم حسابداری اصلی روی تصمیم گیری برای سرمایه گذاری و اثر مستقیم آن روی ارزش کلی سهام شرکت‌های پذیرفته شده در بورس است. در این مطالعه، برای حصول نتایج تحقیق، اطلاعات مالی ویژه‌ای تجزیه و تحلیل شدند که برای نمونه‌ای آماری متشکل از 65 شرکت رومانیایی پذیرفته شده در بورس بخارست (Bucharest) بین سال‌های 2011 و 2013 گردآوری شده بودند. برای تجزیه و تحلیل داده‌ها، از مدل‌های اقتصادسنجی برپایه تحلیل رگرسیون چندگانه موجود در منابع علمی استفاده شد و با اهداف این تحقیق تطبیق داده شدند. در سطح این مطالعه، اطلاعاتی که با بکارگیری حسابداری نقدی (که از طریق گردش نقدی حاصل از عملیات، گردش نقدی حاصل از سرمایه گذاری و گردش نقدی حاصل از تأمین مالی کمیت یابی می‌شوند) و کاربرد حسابداری تعهدی (که از طریق تغییرات درآمد عملیاتی و خالص کمیت یابی می‌شوند) بدست آمدند دو تأثیر تخمین زده شده و آزمایش شده روی عملکرد سود سرمایه شرکت‌های پذیرفته شده در بورس داشتند. نتایج تحقیق در مورد شرکت‌های رومانیایی پذیرفته شده در بورس نشان داد که ارتباط ارزشی اطلاعات حاصل از حسابداری تعهدی نسبت به حسابداری نقدی بیشتر شده است.