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The Commercialization of Government's Departmental Accounting (AAS 29): Quasi Rents and Public Welfare
Author(s) -
AIKEN MAXWELL,
MCCRAE MICHAEL
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
abacus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.632
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6281
pISSN - 0001-3072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6281.1996.tb00459.x
Subject(s) - accounting , mark to market accounting , social accounting , accounting standard , positive accounting , financial accounting , environmental full cost accounting , economic rent , government (linguistics) , accounting information system , governmental accounting , commercialization , business , accountability , economics , management accounting , national accounts , fund accounting , political science , market economy , marketing , linguistics , philosophy , law
In the Australian public sector. departmental administrative reform is intent on producing lean. efficient. commercially orientated government entities. An accounting regulatory response is AAS 29. Financial Reporting for Governtizetzt Departments. which requires all government departments as reporting entities to adopt in principle much of the whole corpus of private sector accounting standards and statements including. importantly, current cost accounting. This paper explores the proposition that the commercialization of departmental accounting through AAS 29 or similar pronouncements is directly associated with a significant reduction in social and public welfare accountability. Accounting processes are powerful. value‐laden agents of social change. Benston (1980) states that ‘benefits (net of costs) of accounting standards to society’ cannot be measured but can be specified for individuals. Here. accounting outcomes are identified to be the residuals of economic policies to eliminate quasi rents in government. Standardization in AAS 29 rests on the assumption that rights and obligations being equities of generations of participants can be periodically measured as A ‐L = E at current factor prices. This economic notion lacks cultural heritage in financial disclosure of continuing equities in government and may, for any generation of consumers. induce an excess of social costs over social benefits for the accounting standardization process under prevailing managerialist philosophies.