International Comparative Issues in Government Accounting: The Similarities and Differences between Central Government Accounting and Local Government Accounting within or between Countries

Due to the developments in the role of governments, the importance of government accounting and financial reporting is increasing. This led to changes in Government Accounting all over the world. For institutional, public finance and other reasons this has not always been done for central governments and regional and local governments in the same way. Some countries maintain the cash basis, some changed over to the accrual basis. Many of them started at first with lower government levels, only few changed over completely. Comparative Issues in Government and Accounting aims to give insight in the array of different patterns the world shows with respect to government accounting and financial reporting. Of course a complete overview would have been too ambitious a goal. This book brings together an interesting number of academics coming from a representative number of countries to get an impression of the situation and especially of the existence and the backgrounds of similarities and differences. Thirty-five authors and co-authors produced 21 chapters reflecting on the situations in 16 countries on 4 continents. Countries dealt with are Albania, Australia, Belgium, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Table of Contents:
I Dutch Government Accounting.- 1. Dutch Government Accounting from the perspective of the Suppreme Auditing Institution.- 2. Dutch Central Government Budgeting and Accounting System.- 3. The Dutch Provincial and Municipal Accounting System.- 4. The Financial Management System of the City of Tilburg.- II International Comparative Research.- 5. A Comparison of Japanese and Australian Second Tier Government Performance Reporting.- 6. Central Governmental Accounting of Egypt and the Netherlands: Similarities and Differences.- 7. Accounting and Democratic Governance: A Comparative Study of one Norwegian and one Russian County.- III National Comparative Research.- 8. Transferability of Reformed Local Government Accounting to Provincial Government Accounting in Belgium.- 9. Comparing Cameral and Accrual Accounting in Local Governments.- 10. Financial Management Initiatives at Different Governmental Layers in the Netherlands.- 11. Financial Management Reform in New Zealand Local Government: A Central Government Initiative or a Response to Local Needs.- 12. Accounting and Financial Reporting in Spanish Regional Governments: Exploring Similarities and Differences.- 13. Accruals Accounting Approaches in the UK Public Sector: Diversity and Convergence.- 14. Accounting for Capital Assets in the Public Sector: Difference between Accounting Standards Boards in the United States.- 15. Transforming Government Accounting in Japan: Revolution or Fashion?.- IV National Non-Comparative Research.- 16. Polish Public Sector Accounting in Transition: The Landscape after Early 1999 step in the State Redefining.- 17. A Diffusion-Contingency Model for Government Accounting Innovations.- 18. The Effects of Reform on China’s Public Budgeting and Accounting System.- 19. Implementing the MunicipalAccounting Reform in France.- 20. Local Government Accounting in Norway: Central Norms Create Confusing Information at the Local Level.- 21. Budgeting and Accounting Practices for Subsovereign Debt Issuers.