Assessing Government Accountability through Financial Statements

This essay delves into the critical role of accountability within the Australian public sector, emphasizing how financial statements contribute to government transparency and effective financial management. It references the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) and the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) guidelines to highlight the importance of providing relevant and reliable financial information to the public and Parliament. The essay discusses how the structure of financial reporting and the use of accrual accounting enhance accountability. It also explores the usefulness of financial statements for accessing government accountability, emphasizing the importance of timely and accurate financial reporting at both agency and national levels. The essay concludes that accountability is vital for building public trust and ensuring efficient service delivery to citizens.

Running Head: PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING
PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Accountability........................................................................................................................2
Importance of Public Sector Accountability of Australia......................................................2
Nature of Public Sector Accountability of Australia.............................................................3
Usefulness of Public Sector Financial Statements for Accessing Government
Accountability........................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Reference....................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Accountability is considered as the vital aspects in the evaluations of the on-going
effectiveness of the public officials or the bodies, which ensures that these bodies are
performing to the full capacity or potential by providing the value for the money, being
responsive towards the community as well as instilling the confidence in government. The
accountability of the public is important because it helps in providing the democratic means
for monitoring as well as controlling the conduct of the government, preventing the
developments of the power concentrations as well as enhancing the learning effectiveness and
capacity of the public administration1. Hence, under this assignment, discussion will be on
the usefulness of the public sector financial statements in enhancing the accountability by the
governments in Australia will be discussed.
Discussion
Accountability
Accountability is defined as the assumptions as well as accountability of the
responsibility for the actions, decisions, products as well as policies that includes governance,
administration and implementations with scope of role and encompassing the obligations for
reporting, explaining as well as being answerable2.
Importance of Public Sector Accountability of Australia
Over the years, the arrangements of the accountability have evolved and still they are
reflecting the values as well as techniques of industrial era under which they were developed.
It is based on the modes of hierarchy of decision making as well as sequential approaches
1N Rika & K Jacobs, "Reputational risk and environmental performance auditing: A study in the Australian
commonwealth public sector", in Financial Accountability & Management, vol. 35, 2019, 182-198.
2 M Bunn, R Pilcher & D Gilchrist, "Public sector audit history in Britain and Australia", in Financial
Accountability & Management, vol. 34, 2017, 64-76.

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towards solving the problem and requirements of single point of hierarchy. These particular
arrangements have well served Australia and it continues for doing so for many of the
functions of the government3.
Nature of Public Sector Accountability of Australia
The public sector in Australia acknowledges the complexity of the accountability in
the modern arrangements and accepts the fact that there exists continuum of the relationships
of the accountability that is both vertically as well as horizontally between the government,
citizens of Australia, the parliament as well as public services. Accountability particularly in
context of public service is described in the terms of the obligations that arises from
responsibility relationships or the authority that pertains in between the public services,
parliaments and the ministers. There are generally legal obligations to responsive to affected
parties legitimate interest. The key features of public sector accounting in Australia are
accrual accounting. Moreover, there is comprehensive reporting that is based on the
international accounting as well as statistical standards. The transactions are based on the
neutral approaches for reporting requirements to promote comparability and consistency
across the sectors. For example, ex-ante reporting in the budgets for the future years for the
national as well as state governments, three years is typical4.
Usefulness of Public Sector Financial Statements for Accessing Government
Accountability
Australian public services are encouraged for responsive for the public members’
needs for which the services are provided, which are supported by the mechanisms such as
performance benchmarking and Citizen’s Charters. It is now the public management or the
3 J Warhurst, "Parliamentary government in Australia", in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, vol. 52,
2014, 327-329.
4 "Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014", in Legislation.gov.au, , 2019,
<https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017C00255> [accessed 23 August 2019].

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common wealth government is now accountable for various activities that include annual
reports, management of portfolio, budgets and so on. The financial reports that are prepared
for Australia’s public sector are budget reporting such as ex-ante that are linked with process
of parliamentary approval, National government-long term fiscal sustainability reporting such
as Intergenerational report, Midyear as well as pre-election updates for budget projections
and reporting of the actual or ex-post outcomes such as annually, monthly or quarterly.
The example of the accountability of public sector financial statement is the practices
of Commonwealth financial reporting. There is freedom of information or statutory right of
the access to the documents of the government that is justified on grounds that it helps in
encouraging the transparency as well as political accountability by promoting the public
participation in the government as well as representative democracy. The focus on the
decentralizations of the management to agencies means that the financial reporting are
heavily given importance at the agency level for ensuring accountability at all the levels of
government5.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded from the analysis that accountability provides the vital role
in the creation of the activities of the good governance as the part of improving the public
confidence in the performance of the government. Moreover, it is analyzed that government
establishes trust by providing the accurate as well as complete information on the assets as
well as liabilities and the revenues and the expenses. Lastly, it is analyzed that the approaches
to the public management in Australia is decentralized and it helps in emphasizes the
accountability by the managers for performing efficiently and effectively in the delivery of
the service for citizens or the tax payers.
5 "Australian Federal Government Accountability Organisations", in Accountability Round Table., , 2019,
<https://www.accountabilityrt.org/government-accountability-organisations/australian-federal-government-
accountability-organisations/> [accessed 23 August 2019].

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Reference
Australian Federal Government Accountability Organisations. in , , 2019,
<https://www.accountabilityrt.org/government-accountability-organisations/australian-
federal-government-accountability-organisations/> [accessed 23 August 2019].
Bunn, M, R Pilcher, & D Gilchrist, "Public sector audit history in Britain and Australia.".
in Financial Accountability & Management, 34, 2017, 64-76.
Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014. in , , 2019,
<https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017C00255> [accessed 23 August 2019].
Rika, N, & K Jacobs, "Reputational risk and environmental performance auditing: A study in
the Australian commonwealth public sector.". in Financial Accountability & Management,
35, 2019, 182-198.
Warhurst, J, "Parliamentary government in Australia.". in Commonwealth & Comparative
Politics, 52, 2014, 327-329.