THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL CONTROL: EMPIRICAL REALITY

Abstract

In the public sector accounting structure pieces accountability of public officials, placing accounting public on the condition of social control tool, however, the problem is in making meaningful and accessible to citizen understanding of financial information, thus, the goal is to verify whether the accountability performed by public accounting information is perceived by the average citizen as monitoring the performance of the public official. The methodology adopted is as to the purposes and means of descriptive research were bibliographic, documentary and field research. As a result it appears that most respondents can perceive the usefulness of accounting information as well, has interest in the content that can be extracted from public financial statements, however, it is inferred that information when placed in a context, in a less technical language, allows an increased level of understanding of the public financial reports.