Orena kommunala årsredovisningar : Varför får kommunerna kritik och hur behandlar de kritiken?

Municipalities are considered to be neutral in their reporting. This means that they must report in a reliable, verifiable and objective manner in order to provide relevant information to their recipients through the annual report. Sometimes the municipal financial statements differ in generally accepted accounting principles and fairly. This study was intended to increase understanding of individual’s perceptions of the accounting work and the consequences of it, to clarify the criticism municipalities have received and how they deal with that. To answer the question Why the municipal financial statements are unclean was the identification of factors affecting change in the inclination from an organizational and an individual perspective. This study was conducted through observations and interviews with standardized questions to actors in four of Norrbottens municipalities. To validate the answers that the actors gave we also conducted interviews with a professional counselor and a person from the Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting. The qualitative data collected were analyzed through our theoretical framework which consisted of the institutional theory, personalities and the property of qualitative accounting information. The results of the study shows that the organization and the individual are highly institutionalized and are therefore slow to change. But though collection and extension of knowledge depend on the personality traits of the individual. To implement a change these factors need drastic methods. Concretely, it means that experienced individuals are looking to their past experiences and knowledge, and combined with the organizational inertia the criticism do not always result in a change. This means that the criticism can be ignored to the next year which means that municipal financial statements continue to deviate from generally accepted accounting principles and fair view. To ensure quality, we suggest a development of the trial proceeding in which such basis in financial statements should be studied further.Validerat; 20110615 (anonymous