The role of accounting in public governance process

Abstract

The intensification of the relations between government and society, whether by means of public-private interaction or of the participation of civil society, contributes to the appreciation of accounting in the scope of public administration. Accounting gains a new feature with this configuration. In addition to its basic capacities of registering and interpreting all phenomena, among which are public budgets, accounting may also provide citizens power and perform an active role in the socio-economic development of a country or a community. The main objective of this article is to analyze literature on accounting from the public governance context. Specific objectives are: to comprehend the role of accounting in the process of public governance, present the experiences in Brazil and present challenges of the accounting reform in Brazil. This investigation is characterized as a qualitative, descriptive bibliographic and documental research. In the documental research we analyzed normative instruction, law and the Federal Accounting Council in Brazil, all related to the functionality of accounting in Brazil and its accounting reform. This study demonstrates that accounting presents a potential to perform the role of strengthening democracy, social control, accountability, creating a social power in the dynamic process of public governance.