La Quinta Ampliación

further supplemented by Notes. In Notes external users can find information about accounting methods used, evaluation patterns, detailed data concerning infrastructure actives and so on. It seems that thanks to the reform information capability of financial statements increases positively.

On the other hand, changes in accounting systems make considerable demands for costly software upgrades, organizational changes, time-consuming asset database upgrades, personal training or issuing internal directives.

Implementation of some accrual elements such as depreciation or accruals and deferrals is also inevitably connected with utilisation of assessments which can limit or even decrease information capability of financial statements.

It is also questionable whether both external and internal users sufficiently understand the content of financial statements and in what way they can use them. In the case of internal users it is questionable too whether they have sufficient authority and adequate management system.

For that reason a survey via questionnaire was undertaken among economic managers of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic in 2012. The survey was concentrated among others on accessibility, content and utilization of financial statements. 75 % of questionnaires were filled and returned by managers. The survey has showed the following results:

3.1 Accessibility and utilization of financial statements

67 % of respondents stated that they always have financial statements at their disposal. (In fact these statements are available to all economic managers anytime). The same percentage of respondents further announced that these data are utilized only occasionally. In an

open-ended question respondents added that most frequently they use a statement of budgetary resources exploitation. Once a year a brief financial analysis is prepared out of financial statements by Regional Financial Department as “Rating” and provided to commanders (and economic managers). It was sounded out that 58 % of commanders never use this analysis and 25 % use it rarely.

These findings correspond with former assumptions and they are probably typical for the whole public sector or at least state administration. Though financial statements are commonly available to economic managers or commanders, they do not use them very often and instead they only control budget expenditures.

There can probably be found more reasons for this situation. From absence of strategy and management concept, through lack of demand for real economic management, inconvenient legislature, confused or complicated organization structure to insufficient system of internal training. Also excessively centralized management system does not generate adequate space for economic decision-making. Then it is necessary to define an appropriate level of management and set up convenient conditions for effective decision-making process.

3.2 Concept of economic management The basic principles of economic management in the Czech public sector are implied from legislature, concretely from Act No. 320/2001 Coll. on Financial Control in the Public Administration [5]. This act defines 3E Concept, i.e. Economy, Effectiveness, Efficiency that should be obeyed within the process of economic management. Various authors also come out from 3E Concept while defining effective management in the public sector or public administration. For example

143 Ochrana and Půčik [6] specify effective

management in public administration as the gradual fulfilment of goals in relation to reaching adequate outcomes and exploitation of public resources in accordance with the 3E Concept.

Abovementioned authors further introduce basic assumptions of effective economic management in the public administration [6]. Among these assumptions, they include external and internal framework conditions setting- up, availability of managers, adequate goals setting-up, gradual goal fulfilment, feedback and control of main indicator fulfilment.

The abovementioned authors indicate as the most urgent problems of the public sector management gradual feedback and control of goal fulfilment. The main reason for this situation is, according to them, obsolete information about the state of public sector activities and successive delay in corrective remedies. 75 % of survey respondents (economic managers) mentioned they are familiarized sufficiently with 3E Concept. A further 67 % of them think they dispose of adequate authority to realize 3E Concept. On the other hand, surprisingly 42 % of respondents introduce the idea that commanders only rarely take their economic opinions and recommendations into consideration. Only 42 % of respondents further think they are familiarized sufficiently with instruments of economic management, 33 % of respondents are not sure whether they are familiarized with appropriate instruments. Interesting results concern also internal conditions for economic management. 42 % of all respondents think that necessary conditions for economic management do not exist in the Ministry of Defence. 33 % of respondents are sure that necessary conditions do not exist there. In an open-ended question respondents specified that the main obstacle of

economic management represents a high level of centralization and relatively poor space for independent decision-making. In consequence of this obstacle 58 % of respondents quoted that they only seldom utilize economic management instruments.

Relatively perturbing results are connected with the question concerning the system of internal training. Roughly 84 % of respondents stated that system of internal training is either rather or fully inconvenient. It is evident that the system of internal training should be improved as to economic management principles and adequate instruments of their realization.

4. Conclusions

Analysis and comparison of financial statements carried out in terms of GACR project solution showed that structure and content of financial statements have changed significantly. Though some problems still exist, information capability of financial statements for various purposes of external and internal users increases. Also transparency of accounting data and possibility of their mutual comparison improve.

On the other hand the survey undertaken in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic suggests that accounting data are still not adequately used for the purposes of economic management. The same situation probably prevails in the whole Czech public sector. Reasons for this situation can be various, for example absent demand for such data utilization, absent internal economic management concept, high level of centralization and poor space for economic decision- making, insufficient system of internal training and so on.

In fact only accounting system can provide external and internal users with such a complex system of economic data.

144

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