Resumo

In 2008 the Brazilian Committee of Convergence published its regulations aligned with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). This change created a great challenge for the local governments. As major policies change in the Brazilian public sector accounting, we highlighted the adoption of accrual and the use of a set of financial statements compliance from IPSAS 1. Many public bodies only presented their budgetary statement and their notes as a means to comply with legality

To understand the problems involved in accounting within the public sector, we need to study the political and economic influences that prevent accountability and transparency. The New Public Management (NPM) has been identified as a way to improve the efficiency of public services. It focuses on the provision of information for the management of these services. Brazil is going through a historically known model, which affected many countries as well:Patrimonial, Bureaucratic and Management.

Several theories have helped to explain the adoption of reforms in government management, including the public choices, agency and institutional theories. The communication theory also recognizes the important role of accounting in the public sector (Dias Filho & Nakagawa, 2001). According to the institutional theory, organizations have become more homogeneous and bureaucracy is a common feature in them. The mechanisms of reforms, transparency has been mentioned as a sign of good management.

For our research, we considered the years 2012 and 2013. We based our sample on 45 cities of more than 500,000 inhabitants, including all Brazilian state capitals. IPSAS provides a benchmark to evaluate how they are applying the best practices used to built a score of accrual accounting. Analysis set similarly as -the techniques of the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and the Mann-Whitney tests- were applied to identify homogeneous groups. We used the Pearson correlation to verify two variables.

The local government analyses allow us to identify the difficulties of IPSAS 1 for compliance. We used the index by categories of accounting: contents of financial report, information recommended by IFAC to be disclosed by accrual accounting and Property, plant and equipment. The most advanced on the accrual adoption and made up of the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Recife. Biggest cities, located in Southeast region present the best index as confirmed in the Pearson correlation.

The best performances come from the Southeast and Northeast Region.The main limitation found in this research is the lack of disclosure in financial reporting. Similarly, the fact that the presentation of financial statements under the new 2014 regulations is mandatory emphasized the relevance of this study. Since 2008, few cities have complied with the requirements of the IPSAS implementation. The newer information from our data is Property, plant and equipment.

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