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Product Number 03820001
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Staff contact
J. Paul-Émile Roy, CA
research.studies@cica.ca
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Executive Overview
Survey Questionnaire
Purpose of this Paper
This discussion paper provides a status report on current statutory obligations and planned initiatives for using full accrual accounting for preparing budget and estimates documents. It suggests directions and presents observations to stimulate further discussion and expands the knowledge base for improvements to senior government accrual budgeting across Canada.
The development of this discussion paper began with a fairly rigorous review of financial management statutory obligations in Canada’s 14 senior government jurisdictions. Most statutes are available on the Internet and hyperlinks are provided in the bibliography. In addition, a comprehensive survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to senior officials representing the budgeting and reporting communities in each jurisdiction. The survey was divided into two sections. The first asked for information on statutory provisions and practices modified to include the use of accruals, with particular emphasis on budget decision making and accountability. The second asked for the respondents’ professional opinion on the impact accrual accounting has had, or will have, on the development of legislation, government policy, accounting standards and the accountability framework. The survey results are presented throughout this paper and provide interesting reflections on the current state and future of accruals in public sector financial administration. It is noteworthy that there were no major differences between the opinions expressed by the budgeting community and those of the reporting community.
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