Public managers’ perception of the usefulness of accounting information in decision-making processes

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses local government practitioners’ perceptions of the usefulness of accounting information for decision-making in jurisdictions with dual reporting (cash and accruals). The authors show that, in general, neither educational background (in economics or in other disciplines) nor the experience (length of time in the job) of public sector managers in Croatia and in the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) affected their perceptions of the usefulness of accounting information. The research provides new insights into the usefulness of mandatory reports and the availability of information for decision-making in dual reporting systems.

IMPACT

Since public sector managers are significant users of accounting information, it is important to know how they evaluate the usefulness of such information, especially when considering public sector accounting reforms. This paper provides information about public managers’ perceived usefulness of cash and accrual information for decision-making and finds that, although both sets of information are important sources of data, accrual information is rated higher.

KEYWORDS:

• Accrual accounting
• cash accounting
• Croatia
• local government decision-making
• public managers’ education and experience
• Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Acknowledgement

This work was fully supported by the ‘Research Comparability’ Programme of the Croatian Science Foundation funded by the European Union from the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme Efficient Human Resources 2014-2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).