Australian governments have recently moved from cash accounting to accrual accounting. In doing so they have made simultaneous use of two rival accrual accounting frameworks: AAS 31 and GFS. AAS 31 and GFS operating result measures differ significantly. To date, the AAS 31 framework has enjoyed...

Australian governments have recently moved from cash accounting to accrual accounting. This paper discusses a number of issues pertaining to key accrual fiscal measures. Governments have adopted Australian Accounting Standard 31 as their principle accounting framework, relegating the Australian...

Australia in the late 1990 adopted a purchaser-provider model of performance budgeting – so-called “accrual output budgeting” – which attracted considerable international interest. By 2003, however, the system was in headlong retreat. This paper examines the key difficulties experienced...

This paper seeks to identify the best practice principles for performance budgeting. It describes and analyses the principle mechanisms by which performance budgeting systems attempt to link results and resources. These mechanisms are evaluated, drawing amongst other things upon analysis of the...

Units of output are sometimes defined in terms of the achievement of some pre-defined outcome (for example, a specified level of educational achievement), or alternatively in terms of some quality standard interpreted as a ‘conformance to specifications’ activity test. For most public-sector...

In the 1990s, the privatisation of government service provision has become increasingly common in Australia. The approach taken by Australian policy-makers to the privatisation of government services has been dominated by the ‘pure market’ model of competitive tendering, with little...

Influential contemporary performance budgeting models have sought to tighten the link between results and budgets. This paper considers three approaches – budget-linked performance targets, budgeting based upon output or outcome costs, and budgetary performance incentives – and assesses...

This paper examines the system of ‘accrual output budgeting’ which was introduced by most Australian governments at the end of the 1990s. It explains the key features of the system, and its roots in ‘market’ models. Key difficulties with the model are identified: including the...

With the arrival of accrual accounting and a performance budgeting system known as \"accrual output budgeting\", there have been huge changes in the mechanism of central financial control in the budget-dependent Australian public sector. This article outlines and evaluates these changes. The new...