The Reform of the Romanian Local Public Governments Accounting in the Context of the European Integration

Abstract

The use of accrual accounting in the public sector is relatively a recent phenomenon with pro and against groups of practitioners and academics. The movement from cash accounting to accrual accounting is a subject of substantial debates all around the world. At the EU requirements and also at the requirements of the International Monetary System, the World Bank, the European Bank and OECD, Romania adopted the accrual accounting system in the public sector started with 2006 year, for all public entities. The objectives of our research were: · to estimate the benefits and costs involved in the transition towards the accrual accounting system in the public sector, in local governments. · to analyze how is perceived the new accounting system by practitioners from all levels of local governments: county, city and village. The research was developed in Transylvania region in the follows counties Cluj, Bistrita Nasaud, Arad, Salaj, Maramures, Satu Mare, Bihor, Mures, Covasna, Harghita at the level of local public governments with the help of Cluj Regional Training Center for Local Governments Employees, and The Chartered Public Accountants Body from Romania (CECCAR). In each county were organized two round tables with practitioners in accounting from local governments, one in November-December 2005 before the implementation of the new accounting system and one in February-March 2006. The subject of the first round table was to analyze if the practitioners are prepared for the new system and the subject of the second round table was to analyze the problems appeared at the movement from cash accounting to accrual accounting and to find together solutions. At each round table we distributed questionnaires to collect information. The main results and findings are the follow: there is a huge difference between accountants from cities and towns and communes taking in consideration: the experience working with IT systems, the attitude about the new accounting system, but all of them realized the increased complexity of the financial statements implemented by the new accounting system. They understand the role of developing accounting policies. An important problem is the negative attitude of managers. In accountants' opinion, regarding the new accounting system, the majority answers present the lack of understanding by management, without interest, without support for accountants. In conclusion all accountants consider important to develop them skills in applying the new accounting system. A valid conclusion about the benefits of the accrual accounting system we can obtain only after some years of application.