Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Reporting on the state of infrastructure by local government

Reporting on the state of infrastructure by local government The Australian accounting profession has advocated that infrastructure should be accounted for by reporting it at current written down replacement values, on the basis that these financial disclosures would provide relevant information to stakeholders. While local councils are required to apply the profession’s asset valuation and accrual standards in preparing general purpose financial reports, the State of New South Wales has gone further by requiring local councils to also present information about the physical condition of infrastructure, together with estimates of the cost of bringing that infrastructure to a satisfactory condition, and the annual costs of maintaining infrastructure at that standard thereafter. This paper examines how this information was reported for 1995‐96. Analysis of reporting practices suggest that while there are some anomalies and uncertainties surrounding the rating of physical condition and the concept of “satisfactory condition”, the disclosures provided by NSW local government are more informative and arguably more relevant to external stakeholders and those responsible for asset management in local government than the information currently prescribed by accounting standards. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal Emerald Publishing

Reporting on the state of infrastructure by local government

Download PDF
18 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/reporting-on-the-state-of-infrastructure-by-local-government-ofJFVyXffw

References (42)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 MCB UP Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0951-3574
DOI
10.1108/09513579910283477
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The Australian accounting profession has advocated that infrastructure should be accounted for by reporting it at current written down replacement values, on the basis that these financial disclosures would provide relevant information to stakeholders. While local councils are required to apply the profession’s asset valuation and accrual standards in preparing general purpose financial reports, the State of New South Wales has gone further by requiring local councils to also present information about the physical condition of infrastructure, together with estimates of the cost of bringing that infrastructure to a satisfactory condition, and the annual costs of maintaining infrastructure at that standard thereafter. This paper examines how this information was reported for 1995‐96. Analysis of reporting practices suggest that while there are some anomalies and uncertainties surrounding the rating of physical condition and the concept of “satisfactory condition”, the disclosures provided by NSW local government are more informative and arguably more relevant to external stakeholders and those responsible for asset management in local government than the information currently prescribed by accounting standards.

Journal

Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 1, 1999

Keywords: Replacement; Infrastructure; Local government; Assets valuation; Planned maintenance

There are no references for this article.