Accounting for Government

This chapter describes the pervasive impact governments have on our lives and therefore why they need to be well managed. The size and complexity of governments, and of their finances, makes proper accounting critical to their good management . Some of the complexity of government finances are described, and the implications these have for their accounting practices. In this and the following chapters, we use the New Zealand Government as an example to illustrate our arguments, primarily because it is the government which has most fully integrated good accounting into its financial management processes and financial decision-making.