Accounting, auditing, and financial reporting.

• Position: From the Library - Policy study - Brief Article

"Local Government Accountants as Public Managers: An Evolving Role"

McCue, Clifford P.

State and Local Government Review, Spring 2001, pp. 144-157

Local government accountants traditionally have assumed the role of "information providers," synthesizing historical financial information for both internal and external stakeholders. However, the rise of public management initiatives like strategic management accounting, performance-based budgeting, and service efforts and accomplishment reporting are placing increased pressure on accountants as "information facilitators." In this role, accountants support organizational decision making by providing specialized accounting information and ad hoc analyses for staff and line managers on demand--complete with interpretive discussion. The author conducted a random sample of local government accountants to determine the extent to which they are facilitating this type of organizational decision making. The results of the survey...