Accrual basis in Brazilian public sector studies: the mismatches of academic discussion

Abstract

The research on the adoption of accrual basis by the public sector in Brazil are few and fledgling, what is expected due to the scarcity of real study cases, because most federal entities have not adopted the accrual basis in it integral form yet. Despite of this, existing research represent the state-of-art of scientific knowledge on the subject and this research has sought to identify the Academy contributions to the understanding of accrual basis applied to the public sector in Brazil through a review of national studies that deal with the subject. There were selected articles that discuss accrual basis in the public sector from 2005 to 2012 published in periodicals and events punctuated by Capes related to accounting and/or public sector accounting. The results indicate that there is no stablished trend lines of research and the findings of one study does not tend to be compared with others. The searches have not been carried out forward, nor by other authors, or by themselves, and the authors have not exploited gaps left by previous searches, whether they are domestic or foreign. Comparisons between studies have also been affected, in some cases, due to methodological weaknesses. Thus, the Academy contributions to the understanding of the accrual basis applied to the public sector are rather fragmented, which can make it slow the progress in the subject.