ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTION OF THE CITY HALLS’ ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS ON THE RELEVANCE OF CHANGES INSERTED BY ADOPTING BRAZILIAN ACCOUNTING STANDARDS APLLIED IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Abstract

We have been experiencing in the Brazilian Public Accounting, significant changes in its structure and procedures due to the convergence to the international Accounting standards. In this context, this research aims to analyze the perception of the city halls’ Accounting professionals in the Brazilian state of Alagoas on the relevance of the changes inserted by adopting the International Standards of Accounting Applied to the Public Sector - NBCASP. In order to do this, we performed a descriptive study, based on a bibliographic research. As a researching method we conducted a survey through an online questionnaire through Google Docs. We obtained answers from 33 City Halls’ Accounting professionals in that state. In order to analyse the data we used the Likert Rating Scale evaluating the perception of the attendees due to monitoring the convergence process of Public Accounting and their perception about the improvements that Accounting can generate for public management, as a result of the internationalization of Brazilian public accounting standards. The results indicate that, in the perception of the attendants, 66.7% have a high degree of knowledge regarding the matter. In addition, all attendants believe that changes in the financial statements shall make them more useful in the decision-making process and they claim that the changes which come from the implementation of the Brazilian Accounting Standards Applied in the Public Sector will provide greater benefits for the public management of Brazilian counties. Finally, it is concluded that there is no consensus in any of the analyzed variables, and it can be inferred that most accountants are in the knowledge phase of such norms for later application in their professional activities. The study sought to contribute with the initial analysis about Of knowledge of changes in public accounting, helping future work to verify in a more specific way the difficulties faced by the process of change.