Plan de tabulación y análisis

The basic foundation for the initiation of state accounting reform in the Czech Republic was the amendment of the Accounting Act No. 563/1991 Sb., which with effect from 1st January 2010 defined in Section 1 (3) a new concept of „selected accounting entity“. The selected accounting entities in the Czech Republic include "some selected accounting entities" and health insurance companies. "Some selected accounting entities" are understood as state organisational components, state funds, territorial self-governing units (municipalities, regions and the capital city of Prague), voluntary associations of municipalities, the regional councils of the cohesion regions and state-funded organisations. Publishing of important regulations, to which the amended act referred, was a necessary precondition for the proper functioning of the state accounting system from 1st January 2010. This, for example, concerns regulation on stocktaking of assets and liabilities, regulation of the conditions of preparation and presentation of the financial statements of the Czech Republic, regulation on accounting records in a technical form and their transfer to the central state accounting information system. Changes have been also made to Czech Accounting Standards (hereafter "standards"). Before the initiation of the reform the total of 22 standards were in force. From 1st January 2015 up to now, only 10 standards are in force. From the limited number of standards, however, follows a certain degree of uncertainty in some areas of accounting for these accounting entities.

When searching for an optimum accounting procedure for some selected accounting entities, the information published on the web pages of Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic (hereafter "MF CR") or methodological recommendations of regions may help. The reaction to the question "How do you evaluate methodological support from the MF CR during the whole

process of state accounting reform?" was negative by the majority of respondents, only 54

respondents (i.e. 25% of the total number of respondents) evaluated the information provided as sufficient and timely, as follows from the figure No. 1.

Figure 1: Evaluation of methodological support from the MF CR during the whole process of state accounting reform

As a part of the methodological and other professional support of the ongoing state accounting reform, the MF CR:

 put a discussion forum into operation on its website, through which it wanted to inform accounting entities about the status of legislation and collect questions about the accounting reform.

 carried out additional informational support via the portal, especially in connection with data transfer bridges and model accounting procedures,

 supported the creation of united methodology for municipal accounting entities at the level of regional methodists,

 supported the arrangement of nationwide trainingfor all selected accounting entities (including municipal accounting entities), in co-operation with the Institute of Accounting Certification (Institut certifikace účetních, a.s.) and other entities,

 regularly published partial technical information necessary for the transfer of accounting records to the central state accounting information system.

The intention of MF CR was to facilitate the process of state accounting reform for municipalities by providing methodological support. Unfortunately, the support failed to meet the expectation of respondents, as follows from the above mentioned figure No. 1, mainly because information was provided late and incomplete.

The question "How would you evaluate methodological support from the regional office

during the whole process of reform accounting state" showed that the methodological support

from the Regional Office of Moravian-Silesian Region was far better provided because 107 respondents (i.e. 49 % of the total number of respondents) evaluated the support during the whole process of state accounting reform positively. Regional Office of Moravian-Silesian Region facilitated the reform process for municipalities mainly by organizing methodological training for municipal accountants, through which they got acquainted with new accounting procedures and methods that were gradually introduced to the accounting system of territorial self-governing units. Rady1; a) information was sufficient and provided in time; 54; 25% Rady1; b) information was incomplete and provided in time; 38; 18% Rady1; c) information was incomplete and provided late; 79; 37% Rady1; d) I evaluate the whole methodological support negatively (it did not bring any benefit);

42; 20%

a) information was sufficient and provided in time

b) information was incomplete and provided in time

c) information was incomplete and provided late

d) I evaluate the whole methodological support negatively (it did not bring any benefit)

From the questionnaire survey also followed that respondents obtained information about new accounting methods and procedures mainly through training and courses, which they financed themselves or were hold by the Regional Authority of the Moravian-Silesian Region. The respondents in 181 responses indicated that they obtained information on new accounting procedures in training, which they paid themselves, and in 126 cases they took advantage of methodological training organised by the relevant regional office. The respondents also stated in 103 responses, that they used the legislation in force and professional publications aimed at the issue of "state accounting reform." The remaining 43 respondents mentioned web pages of MF CR as an information source.

The question "What do you consider to be the greatest benefit of the state accounting reform" indicated that respondents see as the greatest benefit the introduction of accrual principle to the accounting of municipalities and new method of transfer accounting. The introduction of accrual principle is evaluated positively by 93 respondents (i.e. 48 % of the total number of respondents), and 50 respondents (i.e. 26 % of the total number of respondents) expressed themselves positively on the process of transfer accounting. From the figure No. 2 also follows the fact that at least 28 respondents (i.e. 13 % of the total number of respondents) has not responded to this question at all, which means that they do not consider available options as beneficial for the accounting of their municipality. This number may in fact be even higher if some respondents chose more than one option.

Since the launch of the reform, the usual procedures and methods of accounting have changed for the territorial self-governing units. Cash-based accounting, which reflected budgetary operations in particular, has changed. Instead, a new principle - accrual basis - was introduced in the accounting, along with new accounting methods and procedures. Because of accrual principle, the accounting transactions are recorded in the accounting period, to which they in terms of materiality and time relates. The aim of accrual-based accounting is to record all assets, liabilities, costs and revenue in the accounting period in which they occurred, even though the cash flow related to them has not yet occurred.

Figure 2: The Greatest Benefit of State Accounting Reform

The frequent change of methodology, which often occurred during accounting period, and

Rady1; a) introduction of accrual principle; 93; 48% Rady1; b) depreciation of assets; 38; 19% Rady1; c) off- balance sheet accounting; 13; 7% Rady1; d) accounting of transfers; 50; 26% a) introduction of accrual principle b) depreciation of assets c) off-balance sheet accounting d) accounting of transfers

accounting reform". Considering its large extent and importance of the reform´s content, the main regulations were (regulation No. 410/2009 Sb. and regulation No. 383/2009 Sb.) approved and published shortly before their practical implementation. Another implementing regulation on stocktaking of assets and liabilities was approved in the course of 2010. Similarly, the Czech Accounting Standards had been gradually published during the reform, which caused problems with accounting processing of transactions that were not unequivocally regulated by any of the standards. The situation in practice resulted in a great variability during the application of new accounting methods with a different effect on the economic result. For municipalities, the last month of a year invariably became a period of time, when new legislative and methodological framework of public administration accounting for the next year is usually published, and municipalities had to adapt to it from January of the following year. Municipal accountants were so pressed for time, and many issues arose when the new methodology was used in practise.