The consequences of the current public sector reporting framework for government accountability and decision making

In this chapter, the changes that have occurred in the Australian government’s(Commonwealth) accounting systems and its reporting/disclosure regimes over the last 30 years and the consequential effects on accountability will be considered. Many of these changes result from a combination of several factors (Broadbent & Guthrie 1992; Ryan 1995). One of the factors proposed as being a catalyst for the changes is the emergence of the ‘new right’ and its promotion of market solutions to public sector resourcing problems (Hood 1991). Whilst the focus here is on the Australian Commonwealth government, it is also relevant to the various state governments within Australia that have adopted similar changes and to international jurisdictions since these changes have also occurred in other western democracies. As an example, accrual accounting, badged as resource accounting, was introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2001 (Connolly & Hyndman 2006). There were in the UK, as there had been in Australia, concerns about the ability of accrual accounting to deliver effective accountability mechanisms (Carlin 2005).