Modelling public sector accounting on private sector practices: the perspectives of practitioners in Polish local government

IMPACT

This study taps into the knowledge of practitioners who have hands-on experience of public sector accounting at the local government level. As the public sector and public services are developing by progressively reducing bureaucracy and focusing on improving efficiency and effectiveness, accounting practices should also evolve to meet these challenges. This article demonstrates the importance of involving experienced local government officials in discussions that include changes in accounting practices. Their feedback would enhance the value added of suggested changes, by decreasing the risk that new methods are not applicable or not practical and end up being only ceremonial in nature.

ABSTRACT

This article explores the perspectives of government accounting practitioners about how far public sector accounting should follow in the footsteps of private sector accounting practices. Accounting practitioners in Polish local government have been facing changes to introduce more ‘modern’ accounting practices for around 15 years. The authors reveal practitioners’ scepticism underlying the introduction of some doctrines of New Public Management related to accounting. While supporting the accrual accounting principle, the more experienced practitioners appeared more doubtful about the utility of accrual accounting practices in the complex local government scenario.

KEYWORDS:

• Accrual accounting
• cash basis
• EPSAS
• government accounting
• IPSAS
• new public management
• Polish local government
• publicness

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Magdalena Kowalczyk

Magdalena Kowalczyk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management Accounting at the Poznań University of Economics and Business in Poland. She lectures on courses related to management accounting, financial accounting and public sector accounting. The main interest area of her research is public sector accounting.

Josette Caruana

Josette Caruana is a Certified Public Accountant and Associate Professor in Accounting at the University of Malta. She co-ordinates and lectures on courses related to public sector accounting, which is her area of research interest. Josette is a member of the CIGAR (Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research) Network Advisory Board and of the Academic Task Force on Public Sector Financial Management and Reporting.