Upcoming events
Multiplier Event 7:
Fachtagung: Die Reform des öffentlichen Haushalts- und Rechnungswesens: Erkenntnisse aus Praxis und Wissenschaft
Public Management Colloquium Date: 19 June 2019, Linz / Austria
Event 6: (Dienst-)Leistungsfähigkeit des öffentlichen Sektors: Mehr Transparenz durch öffentliches Rechnungswesen?
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Dr. Ellen Haustein ( Universität Rostock) Begrüßung und DiEPSAm Projektvorstellung
Dr. Ferdinand Schuster (Institut für den Öffentlichen Sektor e.V.; Berlin): „Führt das produktorientierte Haushalts- und Rechnungswesen zu besserer Leistungserstellung im öffentlichen Sektor?“
Review: (German) Conference on Harmonisation of Public Sector Accounting in Europe
In the context of the DiEPSAm project, a (German) conference on Harmonisation of Public Sector Accounting in Europe was successfully held on 16 March 2018 at University of Rostock. The conference was particularly organized for practitioners from the public sector in Germany. Among the around 70 participants, about half of the attendees work at municipalities (finance departments, audit offices), 10 at the state level in Germany and further at the federal level. In addition, also members from universities and private audit companies/consultancy firms visited our event. We were pleased also to welcome representatives from the European Court of Auditors, Eurostat and the German Bundestag. The DiEPSAm project was introduced to the participants by a review on public sector accounting in Germany by Peter Lorson and a project presentation by Ellen Haustein, who are the project coordinators at University of Rostock.
The presentations in the morning were devoted to an update of the EPSAS project presented by Alexandre Makaronidis (Eurostat; EPSAS Task Force), an international harmonization view by Thomas Müller-Marqués Berger (EY, Accountancy Europe) and the perspective of the Hessian Court of Auditors by Karsten Nowak. In the afternoon, the implications of harmonisation were discussed. Considering universities, Berit Adam (Berlin School of Economics and Law) and Jens Heiling (EY) presented a study on the status quo of public sector accounting teaching in Germany. Practical implications for municipalities were shown by Thomas Deiters (Association of Municipalities Mecklenburg Pomerania) and Birgit Frischmuth (German Association of Cities and Towns), completed by empirical insights presented by our DiEPSAm project member Dennis Hilgers (Institute for Public and Nonprofit Management, JKU Linz). The (German) presentation slides and a (German) summary by Peter Lorson as well as a photo gallery of the event can be downloaded here. The presentations were followed by lively, constructive and open discussions among presenters, conference attendees and the moderators Philip Häfner (Hamburg Court of Auditors) and Ellen Haustein. We wish to express our gratitude to all the presenters and moderators as well as the participants for enabling such a successful event!
The (German) presentation slides and a (German) summary by Peter Lorson as well as a photo gallery of the event can be downloaded. The presentations were followed by lively, constructive and open discussions among presenters, conference attendees and the moderators Philip Häfner (Hamburg Court of Auditors) and Ellen Haustein. We wish to express our gratitude to all the presenters and moderators as well as the participants for enabling such a successful event!
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1 Prof. Lorson: Begrüßung, Öffentliche Rechnungslegung in Deutschland
2 Dr. Makaronidis: EPSAS: Status Quo und Zukunftsperspektiven
3 Hr. Müller-Marques Berger: Einfluss der internationalen Harmonisierung auf die EPSAS-Entwicklung
5 Prof. Adam/Dr. Heiling: Sind die Hochschulen in Deutschland fit für EPSAS?
6 Dr. Haustein: DiEPSAm-Projektvorstellung
9 Prof. Hilgers: Nutzung von doppischen Informationen
10 Prof. Lorson: Zusammenfassung
Event 4: Grudis Annual Conference, Porto (2018)
Grudis Annual Conference, February 3rd, 2018 at Catholic University Business School in Porto, Portugal
The Portuguese Grudis conference is an international forum for Accounting Research, considering multiple dimensions and research methods. It supports the discussion and creation of highly relevant accounting research and addresses itself to accounting researchers as well as teachers. The Grudis network strongly supported the DiEPSAm project application and invited the project consortium introduce the project in the form of a session during their regular conference.
The Grudis Annual conference 2018 happened on February 3, at the Catholic University Business School in Porto, Portugal. On February 2, there was also a PhD Colloquium. There were about 80 participants in the whole event, the majority from Portugal (particularly scholars), but also from Brazil, Netherlands, Australia and Norway. Therefore, some sessions were in Portuguese, while other were in English.
The DiEPSAm project was presented in a plenary session by our project member Susana Jorge. There was great interest, especially from the Portuguese scholars, also given the fact that Portugal is embarking a reform starting implementation of an IPSAS-based public sector accounting system, and many universities do not have scholars to teach the topic, despite acknowledging its importance. After the presentation, during informal talks with the project member, scholars congratulated on the project idea, agreeing that this would help them to promote the topic on public sector accounting on their organizations and, at the same time, increasing internationalization, given the fact that the course is in English. They have also asked about when the project materials would be available, seeming eager to have these as soon as possible.
Review: EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop 2018
Photos part 1
Photos part 2
Special Issue Call for Papers: The quest for users’ needs in public sector reporting
THE QUEST FOR USERS’ NEEDS IN PUBLIC SECTOR REPORTING
Guest editors
- Ellen Haustein (University of Rostock, Germany), ellen.haustein@uni-rostock.de
- Peter Lorson (University of Rostock, Germany), peter.lorson@uni-rostock.de
- Eugenio Caperchione (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy), cigar2009@unimore.it
- Isabel Brusca (University of Zaragoza, Spain), ibrusca@unizar.es
Background
Despite an upsurge of interest in Public Financial Management (PFM) research, a common critique refers to the absence of a theoretical background that serves in framing accounting and reporting principles and financial management activities in the public sector (Pallot 1992, Mayston 1992, Steccolini 2016). According to Jones & Pendlebury 2000 (p. 126), public sector accounting has been based on ‘theorized users and hypothesised needs’. Doubts have been raised, whether a ‘substantial number of users’ even exists (Jones & Pendlebury 2000, p. 138).
The requirement to define users and their needs leaves both researchers and standard setters with numerous challenges regarding the identification of users, classification of their needs and resolution of users’ needs conflicts. Despite existing analytical contributions on users and their needs (e.g. Sutcliffe 1985, Jones 1992, Mayston 1992, Ma and Mathews 1992), there is a strong demand for research on determining users and their information needs, especially in the public sector context (Young, 2006, Cascino et al. 2014, Tagesson 2014, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants 2015, Oulasvirta 2016, van Helden, 2016).
The topic currently gains momentum in debates about the development of European Public Sector Accounting Standards, which require a definition of users and their needs as a basis for defining the purposes of reporting and the underlying reporting principles. With this aim, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board published the Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities, which defines the users and also their needs. Literature goes further arguing a distinction between stakeholders of public sector entities and users of public sector accounting information has to be drawn, too. Last but not least, there is a trend towards broader financial and non-financial reporting which demands for a wider reception in public sector accounting research.
Topics for submission
The aims of the special issue are to collaborate in the analysis of the users, their needs and usefulness as well as use and usability of public sector financial management information, namely research works that fall within the fields of financial accounting, reporting and auditing, management accounting and (integrated) reporting. The research may be contemporary, historical or comparative. Some indicative topics to be covered in the special issue are the following:
- The contributions of public sector financial management scholars to support public administrations in identifying addressees of their information reported, the way information is used and reasons for the usefulness or misuse of information.
- tudies on user-centred design and user needs assessment within public financial management.
- The role of new/alternative reporting formats (e.g. popular reporting, integrated reporting, sustainability reporting and performance reporting) in addressing a broader scope of users and responding to their needs.
- The challenges in developing conceptual frameworks and accounting standards both at national and international level (i.e.: IPSAS; EPSAS; GASB and other national regimes) that respond to different types of users and user needs, as well as reporting objectives and principles arising.
- The role of public sector accounting and reporting in restoring public confidence and legitimacy.
- Innovations in management accounting and/or financial accounting for the public sector, which improve usability by internal and/or external users (e.g. with respect to digitalization).
- Perspectives on the use of performance information in the public sector (i.e. theories, practices and disciplines).
- The challenges for and expectations towards academia to provide professional expertise to graduates in their role as potential professionals with a public sector focus (capacity building). Deadlines Full paper submission by the 10th of November 2018 (earlier submissions are welcome) · Scholarone submissions (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpbafm) will open at the beginning of September 2018. Contact details: For inquiries and further information please contact Ellen Haustein (University of Rostock, Germany), ellen.haustein@uni-rostock.de
Event 2: Accounting Symposium, Tampere (2017)
DiEPSAm presented at Audit & Evaluation Symposium 2017 in Tampere/Finland
The Audit & Evaluation Symposium 2017 in Finland was organized by the University of Tampere. During the event, Lasse Oulasvirta presented the DiEPSAm project to the interested audience. The University of Tampere and its School of Management arranges a special conference for auditing and evaluation every second year.
This time there were 72 participants representing Finnish auditors, evaluators, financial management experts, university students and teachers. Some of them participated only to one day during the two day symposium. The program for the Audit & Evaluation Symposium in June 2017 included a stand that contained DiEPSAm material for the audience. The second day of the Symposium consisted of a presentation of the DiEPSAm ERASMUS + project.
Event 1: Session at CIGAR Conference, Porto (2017)
DiEPSAm at CIGAR conference 2017 Porto/Portugal
Within the 16th Biennial Conference of the CIGAR (Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research) Network in Porto/Portugal, the DiEPSAm project was introduced during a session on "Public Sector Accounting Teaching" organized by the University of Coimbra (Portugal). The project was presented at the end of this parallel session in the conference on June 9th 2017.
There were about 35 people attending, among whom there were also members of the project partners. The project was presented by Peter C. Lorson and Ellen Haustein, the project leaders from the University of Rostock (Germany).