The Federal Government of Germany's circumspection concerning accrual budgeting and accounting

Abstract

In 2010, the German federal government, renowned for its fiscal rectitude, abandoned its accrual-based budgeting and accounting reform, certainly the output-based budgeting component of it and possibly the rest. While the German federal ministry of finance supported the reform, parliamentarians feared that the change from an input to an output orientation to the budget, together with the reduction of the number of individual appropriations, would result in a loss of their control over the budget and the government's finances. The global banking crisis certainly increased, and may well have triggered, these fears.

Acknowledgement

This article is the result of a project entitled ‘Foreign countries’ government accounting management and reform experience', which was part of the ‘Study of the strategic framework of China's government accounting reform and management’ by the Treasury Department, Ministry of Finance of China, sponsored by the World Bank (January–July 2010). The material that explicitly draws on this project is with the authorization of the Treasury Department, Ministry of Finance of China. Thanks are also due to Ministerialrat Wolfgang Suhr, Regierungsdirektorin Dr Jutta Kalabuch and Ministerialrat Dr Thomas Knoerzer, of the German federal ministry of finance, for interviews there in March 2010, and Public Money & Management's two anonymous referees.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rowan Jones

Rowan Jones is Professor of Public Sector Accounting, University of Birmingham, UK.

Klaus Lüder

Klaus Lüder is Professor Emeritus of Public Financial Management and Business Administration, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Germany.