Identificación de fuentes de emisión de polvo de madera

One of the most fundamental changes supplied by the New Accounting Model was the im- plementation of accrual accounting instead of cash-basis accounting. Accrual accounting has been preferred because it is supposed to increase transparency inside the administration. Transparency is a fundamental issue since it should increase the managers’ accountability and improve the decision-making process, which in turn should help a better organizational performance and resource allocation. Furthermore, accrual accounting allows to identify the full costs of public activities more accurately. This should allow Swiss cantons to pave the way for the user pays principle inside as well as outside the public administration (CDF 1981: 79). Thus the HAM1 should develop a cost-based way of thinking in the administra- tion, notably through the use of internal service charges.30 _{Hence, one must keep in mind}

that the HAM1 is strongly inspired by an economic approach of public finance. Besides, it is a key element of accrual accounting. To some extents, this economic approach of public finance surrounding the HAM1 tightly converges thetrue and fair view of the financial status currently recommended by the IPSAS norms.

Simultaneously, the HAM1 and IPSAS mostly share a similar presentation of financial statements. Indeed, it is mostly the name of the different statements used within the HAM1 rather than the content of these that is unusual. The main particularity of the HAM1 relies

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The internal service charges allow recording of the exchange of goods and services within an administration. The equivalent of the service is credited as revenue in the department providing the service; it is credited as an expense in the department receiving the service. Such internal service charges entries are purely and only book entries. The

on the crucial distinction between the statement of financial performance and the statement of investments.31 This distinction comes from the fact that some public spending are only used for one year; they are operating expenses. Conversely, some other public spending are used over several years to purchase the infrastructures providing public services; they are investment (or capital) expenditure. Thence arises the question of how to finance these two types of public spending. Should they be financed in the same way or not? To respect the user pays principle, both types of public spending must have two distinct funding sources. Indeed, future generations will also enjoy the usefulness of the investment expenditure. This means they will also have to bear the cost of these investment expenditure, by taking on depreciation charges and the costs of debt. One might therefore consider the statement of investments as a sort of balance sheet account since the investment expenditure are registered as assets. On the other hand, the statement of investments registers subsidies that principally refer to revenues coming from the Federal government. Moreover, we have to underline that assets are split into two categories: the administrative assets and the non-administrative assets. In short, administrative assets are those used and indispensable to accomplish public policies. Conversely, non-administrative assets are not used to accomplish public policies. Indeed, governments use them in order to produce additional revenues. The HAM1 recommends using the criteria of alienability to distinguish both categories of assets. Consequently, if a canton can sell one of its assets without altering the implementation of its public policies, the asset must be considered as a non-administrative asset. Finally, the statement of financial performance refers to all operating expenses (wages, supplies and consumables used, interest costs, etc.) and operating revenues (tax revenues, royalties and concessions, financial income, etc.) of Swiss cantons.

Figure 6 shows how Swiss cantons have to close annual accounts according to the HAM1.

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Both notions are translated from French by the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) and presented in the New Accounting Model (NAM) for the Swiss Confederation (FFA 2008). In the rest of the section, we mainly use the IPSAS terminologies. However, for the Swiss particularities, we sometimes resort to the definitions provided by

Figure 6: Graphical presentation of the Harmonized Accounting Model

Source: CDF (1981), FFA (2008), Bergmann (2009) and own adjustments.

First of all, governments have to close the statement of investments. The balance, called the net investment, corresponds to the difference between the investment expenditure and the subsidies coming from the Federal government. It indicates the part of the investments that Swiss cantons have to bear with their own financial means. The closing of the statement of financial performance highlights the cash-flow from operating activities. The cash-flow from operating activities is defined as the sum of the balance of financial performance (surplus or

deficit) and the depreciation charges of the administrative assets.32 This amount refers to

the financial means at the cantons’ disposal to finance the net investment. If the cash-flow from operating activities is smaller than the net investment, the canton has to borrow on the capital markets in order to finance the difference. This step corresponds to the closing of the statement of financing. Finally, we can gather previous operations into the statement of financial position (i.e. commonly known as the balance sheet). As we can see, investment expenditure increase public assets, whereas the subsidies and the depreciation charges (of the administrative assets) are recorded as a reduction of the investment expenditure. Then, borrowing increases the liabilities while the balance of the statement of financial performance (in a case of a surplus) increases the net equity.

Here, Figure 6 schematizes the case of a canton achieving a surplus of the statement of financial performance and a deficit in the statement of investments (i.e. a positive net investment). In that case, the canton only finances a part of the net investment through debt. Finally, the positive balance reported in the statement of financial performance increases the net equity and borrowing increases liabilities.