Abstract
From the late 1970s, the demand for wider public sector reforms has increased. These reforms aim to make the public sector more efficient and make the policymakers more accountable for their decisions. The role and the method of accounting became one of the most debated parts of the new concept of the public sector. Most of the governments reformed their accounting and budgeting systems less or more.
The most significant trend is the adoption of accrual accounting into the public sector; however, the suitability of the accruals is disputed. The adoption of accrual accounting resulted in diverse outcomes in different countries. The aim of this chapter is to find the reasons for the divergence of the results and identify the main determinants of successful adoption and operation. The examined studies highlight that the introduction of accrual accounting has a wide range of outcomes. The data created by the new accounting systems are usually unexploited. The result of the reforms is influenced by the training of the accountants, the development of the previous accounting system, and the quality of the IT systems, but other factors can have a significant impact, too.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the project nr. EFOP-3.6.2-16-2017-00007, titled Aspects on the development of intelligent, sustainable and inclusive society: social, technological, innovation networks in employment and digital economy. The project has been supported by the European Union, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the budget of Hungary.
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Tóth, B. (2021). How Can Accrual Accounting Be Suitable for the Public Sector? The Possible Determinants of the Successful Reforms. In: Procházka, D. (eds) Digitalization in Finance and Accounting. ACFA 2019. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55277-0_22
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