Examining government accounting standards in terms of accountability and applicability: A research in state universities

Accountability is an important concept that includes the accountability of those who govern the state to the public and relevant institutions in democratic societies, and the holding of administrators to account when necessary regarding the work and transactions carried out. Accountability arises within the framework of institutions' responsibility to act in the public interest. While performing this duty, institutions use taxes collected from the public, underground and aboveground wealth, and resources obtained through borrowing. Resources; Effective, economical and efficient use is the responsibility of managers towards the public. In this context, financial accountability comes to the fore. Achieving financial accountability is possible with well-functioning accounting and reporting activities. Achieving financial accountability; It has the potential to contribute to the prevention of corruption and waste, the creation of tax awareness among citizens, and the strengthening of the sense of trust between the state and citizens. For this reason, these accounting and reporting activities must be carried out within the framework of appropriate, modern and internationally accepted norms. In this context, Turkey issues Government Accounting Standards (DMS) in line with the Turkish state management system and structure, taking the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) as a reference. In this context, revealing whether DMSs serve accountability, at what stage the current situation regarding DMSs is, and the difficulties encountered in the implementation of DMSs are important issues in terms of achieving improvements in public financial management. In this context, a survey was conducted among the personnel working in the accounting and reporting unit and internal audit unit at state universities that implement DMS. The data obtained were subjected to frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance-ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Analysis. Within the scope of the findings, it has been determined that accounting and reporting activities carried out according to DMS contribute to financial accountability in the public sector.