PUBLIC ACCOUNTING AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: LOOKING FOR LINKING DRIVERS BETWEEN THE TWO ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES

Abstract

The article's aims follow from the observation that Public Accounting and Public Management topics are frequently discussed separately in the international scientific literature. From this initial observation derives the paper's research question, which aims to identify the possible connection themes between the two disciplines. In this perspective, a significant interest can be identified in the concept of the full cost. This abstraction usually pertains to the private profit-oriented sector, which finds in the standard cost the alter ego applied in the public sector. The analysis of standard costs in the public sector originates at the European level from the introduction of the Maastricht Treaty parameters in the 1990s and, in particular, from the new accounting discipline introduced by the Treaty. The new discipline has been the basis of many accounting reforms that have taken place in the European context, which have generated, in some countries, the integration (or in some cases, the replacement) of the traditional Cash Basis Accounting (used in the public sector) with the Accrual Basis Accounting (used in the private sector). The paper proposes the following articulation: the analysis of the different cost variations deriving from the different Public Accounting models; the cost analysis for management control purposes; the determination of the different cost configurations; the derivation of the standard cost; and finally, the use of the standard cost as a driver in the reengineering processes implemented by the Public Management. The revision of the organizational models, an activity of Public Management, represents the solution to the critical issues indicated by the cost analysis - particularly the standard cost analysis - implemented by the management control derived from Public Accounting. In this perspective, standard cost (obtained through the full costing methodology) can be considered a significant driver of the conjunction between Public Accounting and Public Management.