An alternative approach to IPSAS consolidation : The case of Sweden

• Main Authors: Karlsson, Johannes, Nilsson, Mathias
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för Hälsa och Samhälle 2010
• Subjects: Consolidation; Swedish Municipalities; Government Business Enterprises; Swedish Council of Municipal Accounting; RKR 8.2
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-6867

The New Public Management (NPM) has made the public sector go through a period of privatization and externalization which has affected the method of accounting of municipalities, from cash to accrual accounting. The NPM has also resulted in a mix of private and public sector that makes the matter of consolidation of municipal groups complicated because of the municipalities’ use of public sector accounting and the municipal companies’ use of private sector accounting.   In Sweden, the Swedish Council of Municipal Accounting (SCMA) has the task of producing recommendations concerning the accounting of municipalities so that the goal of the “true and fair” view of the municipalities’ is met. In 2009, the SCMA produced the recommendation 8.2 (RKR 8.2) containing guidelines concerning consolidation of the municipal group. The purpose of this article is to investigate the use of RKR 8.2 and what kind of municipality is more inclined to use the recommendation. This question shall be answered by a quantitative, document study of the annual reports of Swedish municipalities from 2009 together with the Stakeholder Theory and the Positive Accounting Theory.   The result of the article shows that the municipalities that are more inclined to implement the RKR 8.2 and to implement it to a larger degree are municipalities of a larger size, with a high performance, with a high tax income and with large municipal companies.   Still, the document study shows that only 43 out of 239 municipalities have implemented the recommendation. To increase the implementation and use of the recommendations of SCMA we suggest merger of municipalities as larger municipalities, for different reasons, have implemented the recommendation to a larger degree than smaller ones.