The Effect of Changes in Public Sector Accounting Policies on Administrative Reforms Addressed to Citizens

Abstract

Changes in financial reporting systems are relevant to the usefulness of governmental financial reporting in implementing New Public Management (NPM) reforms. The International Public Sector Accounting Standards, published by the International Federation of Accountants, seeks to improve the financial information reported. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether Fair Value Accounting (FVA) could improve the usefulness of governmental financial statements for citizens under NPM reforms. To achieve this aim, this paper examines the opinions of the National Accounting Standards Setters on the utility of FVA in the introduction of NPM models in countries under different administrative traditions. Our results show that FVA could promote successful NPM reforms, enhancing the implementation of the postulates of efficiency, transparency, and benchmarking analysis. Likewise, the administrative tradition could influence National Accounting Standards Setters’ viewpoints regarding the capability of financial information based on FVA to meet the new information requirements under NPM models.