Justifications and Resistance to Government Fiscal Year Change and its Implications on Reporting by Government Agencies: A Case of Fiji

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the reasons for the Fiji government's change in its financial year and its implications on the financial reporting of a government entity. This paper attempts to understand the impact of financial year change using Burns and Scapens's (2000) Management Accounting Change framework. The data for the study was collected from both primary and secondary sources using semi-structured interviews and archival data such as Hansard reports and newspaper articles, respectively. The study found that the Fijian Government's justification for changing the financial year was aligned with businesses that also changed their financial years. The resistance by the opposition parties raised some critical issues, such as the fact that a government in its last term may pass a budget for campaigning as it falls just before elections are due to be held. The literature also raises the issue of the missing month, where reporting and publicity of the reporting are minimal. The government entity maintained the calendar year as its financial year while changing its financial reporting for the government. This is costly and requires resource utilisation, while the literature suggests that changing the financial year to a non-December month will significantly reduce audit costs and delays. Policy implications are discussed.

Keywords: Financial year; Fiji; Management Accounting Change; Public Sector Management; Management Accounting; Financial Year Change