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THE TREASURER'S DEPARTMENT AS A BUFFER ORGANIZATION
Author(s) -
Olson Olov,
Rombach Björn
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0408.1996.tb00425.x
Subject(s) - business , public administration , accounting , management , political science , economics
The present paper attempts to throw some light on the context within which municipal accounting is used and administered by the Treasurer's Department. The analysis shows that the Treasurer's Department uses the accounting system, and especially the budget, primarily as a buffer between politics and action. This is achieved by constructing an ambiguous accounting system, which is continually being reformed. The Treasurer's Department is therefore described as a ‘buffer organization’ with a function that is very different from the ‘coupling’ function assigned to the accounting system in most of the literature in this field.