IPSASs for a better financial disclosure. An appraisal on the awareness of italian local authorities

According to the principles expressed by New Public Management, and in particular, by the New Public Financial Management (Olson-Humprey-Guthrie, 2001), many countries have showed some significant innovations about accounting systems. This is because public administrations expressed a great cognitive and information need, at both central and local level. In Italy, scholars have demonstrated some interest about harmonization of the role of international accounting standards (Borgonovi, 2004; Caperchione-Mussari, 2000; Farneti-Pozzoli, 2005; Zambon, 2003) but the regulators and public sector operators have shown a huge delay in their utilization. A research team, among others, was born in 2005, supported by the Italian Minister of Scientific Research, to study and analyze the accountability reform in public administrations and appraise the impact of accounting changes in public administration, driven by the aforementioned process of accounting harmonization through IPSASs. The team, is carrying out an activity of research about the identification and analysis of some significant experiences in local authorities in implementing accounting principles. This activity aims to understand the actual level of diffusion and to catch methodologies through which improve the value of information and accountability in the system of accounting surveying of public administrations. This position paper exposes the first significant results of this activity. This paper aims to answer to the following three steps research questions, with reference to some qualified experiences: 1. Are limits of cash basis of accounting and the greater value of accrual basis of accounting perceived by local authorities ? 2. If they do, do they think that IPSASs are able supporting them in these processes? 3. Within these local authorities, what practices, comments and suggestions came from the subject who drives this process? An empirical survey has been carried out in order to answer to these questions. The methodology is constituted by the following steps. A sample has been selected among Italian local authorities, identifying some experiences among: Then, a questionnaire has been submitted to them. The results have been processed to select the most significant practices. After the identification, some common tendencies have been analyzed, joining the empirical results with the theoretical background (Yin, 1994; Ferraris Franceschi,1998; Barzelay, 2001). The results seem reflect the spread perception of the need a change from the basis of accounting adopted at the present. Only few local authorities perceived the usefulness of IPSASs as a profitable means of implementing accrual accounting. Some others are aware of their profitability but feel inadequate to develop the process of their adoption because of the dramatically demanding working load